On Wednesday, a bomb placed under a car in the occupied Crimean city of Sevastopol exploded and killed a Russian soldier. A Kyiv-based security source claimed that this was an attack by Ukraine on a senior naval officer accused of war crime.

The Investigative Committee of Russia, which investigates serious crimes, issued a statement in which it said that the crime was being treated as terrorism, and that a bomb had detonated killing a soldier.

Sources in the Security Service of Ukraine told a reporter that Valery Trankovsky was killed in the explosion. He was a Russian naval officer in charge of the 41st brigade of Russian missile ships in the Black Sea.

Source: The SBU carried out the operation. It was legitimate and in accordance with war customs, according to the source. Source: Trankovsky was accused of war crimes by the source for ordering missile attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine.

Russia used strategic bombers and warships of its Black Sea Fleet to launch missile attacks on Ukraine targets, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths.

Russia claims it doesn't target civilians, infrastructure or civilians.

Baza, an official Telegram channel of the Russian security services, named the serviceman "Valery T." and described him as a "captain" first-rank for the Black Sea Fleet. He was described as the former chief staff of the missile ships brigade.

Baza and a Kyiv-based source both said that the bomb detonated in Taras Shevchenko Street, named after Ukraine's greatest poet.

Baza has published photos of the wreckage from a car.

'LIQUIDATED'

Since the beginning of the conflict, several pro-war Russians have been killed in assassinations that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine. These include journalist Darya Dugia, war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, and former submarine captain Stanislav Rzhitsky.

All of these people, along with Trankovsky were listed in Myrotvorets, a large unofficial Ukrainian database that lists people who are considered enemies of the nation. Trankovsky’s picture on the website was changed to "Liquidated", in red letters, on Wednesday.

The Russian Federal Security Service (the main successor of the Soviet KGB) announced in December last year that it had broken up a network in Crimea consisting of Ukrainian agents who were involved with attempts to assassinate pro Russian figures.

The report said that the targets were the Moscow-installed Crimea head, Sergei Aksyonov and Oleg Tsaryov, a former prorussian member of Ukraine's parliament.

Tsaryov survived after being shot twice during an attack on October 18th in Crimea. Russia took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Sources in Ukraine's SBU agency said at the time the shooting was a SBU operation. (Reporting and editing by Gareth Jones; Tom Balmforth)

(source: Reuters)