Stanislav Krasilnikov/SPTNK/Sputnik via AP
Mikhail Filiponenko, the former military chief of the self-proclaimed Lunhansk People’s Republic, was killed by a car bomb on November 8, 2023.
Kyiv CNN —
Ukraine said it was responsible for the killing of a Russian-backed official with a car bomb in the occupied eastern city of Luhansk on Wednesday.
Mikhail Filiponenko, a deputy in the Kremlin-appointed assembly, was a former army chief of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). Since 2014 he has been active in the region’s pro-Russian separatist movement.
Both Ukrainian and Russian authorities reported that Filiponenko was killed in a car bomb attack early Wednesday morning. Ukraine’s military intelligence immediately claimed responsibility and warned that others serving “terrorist Russia” would receive similar “retaliation.”
“Together with representatives of the resistance movement, a special operation was carried out to eliminate the executioner Filiponenko,” Ukrainian Defense Intelligence said on Telegram.
The Russian Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal investigation into the explosion.
“This morning an unknown explosive device exploded under the floor of the car, killing Mikhail Filiponenko,” it said on Telegram. “A criminal case has been opened.”
Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence said the bomb exploded at 8:40 a.m. on Wednesday and confirmed that “the so-called deputy of the so-called ‘Supreme Soviet LPR’ of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Filiponenko Mikhail Yuryevich, was eliminated.”
According to Defense Intelligence, Filiponenko “was involved in the establishment of torture chambers in the occupied territories of the Luhansk region, where prisoners of war and civilian hostages were subjected to inhumane torture.”
“Filiponenko personally brutally tortured people,” it said.
Stanislav Krasilnikov/Sputnik/AP
A video showed the site of the car bomb explosion that killed Filiponenko.
There is growing evidence that Russia is making widespread use of torture against Ukrainians in the territories it occupies. An August report found that nearly half of Ukrainians held in Russian detention centers in Kherson were subjected to widespread torture, including sexual violence. Separately, Ukrainian prosecutors opened more than 3,000 criminal cases in September alleging Russia’s crimes against children in the country, including torture.
Defense Intelligence of Ukraine published Filiponenko’s address and warned others: “All addresses of traitors and locations of operations for terrorist Russia in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine are known!” Defense Intelligence of Ukraine declares that all war criminals and collaborators will receive just retribution! “
There have been several assassination attempts against Russian-backed officials in occupied Ukraine. The acting interior minister of the self-proclaimed LPR, Igor Kornet, was “seriously” injured in an explosion in May.
Luhansk is one of the four regions that Russia unilaterally annexed in September last year, along with Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia. Luhansk and Donetsk are home to two Russian-backed breakaway republics where fighting has been ongoing since 2014. Kherson and Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine have been occupied by Russian forces since shortly after the full-scale invasion began in 2022.
Moscow held mock elections in all four regions in September to impose a narrative of Russian legitimacy in the parts of Ukraine it controls. “The election results are already known,” a Zaporizhzhia resident told CNN ahead of the votes, which were expected to deliver landslide victories for President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.