- Stanislav Rzhitsky was shot while jogging in a Russian city
- The Ukrainian secret service publishes details on the website
- The dead man had appeared in the database of enemies of Ukraine
- Russian investigators arrest suspect in raid
July 11 (Portal) – A Russian military officer who commanded a submarine in the Black Sea and was on a Ukrainian blacklist of suspected war criminals was shot dead by an unknown assassin on his morning run.
Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was shot dead early Monday in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. His address, picture and personal information had appeared on the Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (“Peacemakers”), a huge unofficial database of people considered enemies of Ukraine.
On Tuesday, his photo on the website had the word “Liquidated” in red letters overlaid on it.
Russia’s State Investigative Committee said on Tuesday it had arrested a suspect in his early 60s who had found a pistol and a silencer. It released a short video showing heavily armed security officers storming a house and arresting the man, who was only wearing boxer shorts.
The Ukrainian military intelligence agency GUR published details of the murder on its website without claiming responsibility or saying how it obtained the information.
It was said that Rzhitsky died on the spot when seven shots were fired at him from a Makarov pistol while running in a deserted city park around six in the morning.
Baza, a Russian Telegram channel with ties to the security services, said the killer was able to track Rzhitsky’s movements through an app, where he posted details of his regular jogging route in Krasnodar and the time it took him to do it.
Russian state media and war bloggers said Rzhitsky was deputy head of military mobilization in the city and previously commanded the Krasnodar submarine in the Black Sea.
A Telegram channel used by self-proclaimed pro-Ukrainian partisans who have claimed hundreds of sabotage attacks in Russia said – without providing evidence – that Rzhitsky was suspected of involvement in a July 2022 submarine cruise missile attack in which At least 23 people were killed including a 4-year-old girl in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia.
Baza quoted Rzhitsky’s father as saying he retired from military service at the end of 2021 and was delayed in his discharge the following August.
At least two other Russian pro-war advocates from the Myrotvorets database have been murdered in Russia since Russian forces invaded Ukraine nearly 17 months ago. Bomb attacks killed journalist Darya Dugina last August and war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in April.
Russia blamed Ukraine for the attacks. Kyiv has denied involvement and suspected the attacks were the result of Russian power struggles.
Reporting by Mark Trevelyan, editing by Mark Heinrich
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.