Pro-Putin politician in occupied Luhansk killed in car blast

A pro-Kremlin politician in Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region was killed in a car bombing allegedly masterminded by Kyiv’s security services, just over a year after he survived a previous assassination attempt.

Oleg Popov, a former deputy of the Moscow-controlled Luhansk Regional Parliament, was in a car traveling near the Avangard sports stadium Wednesday when it blew up, with video catching plumes of black smoke shooting into the air

Another recording circulating on Telegram showed the badly mangled car and law enforcement officials gathering evidence at the scene.

Firefighters initially found Popov suffering from critical injuries. His death was later confirmed by his colleague, Yuri Yurov, on his Telegram channel.

The Security Service of Ukraine was allegedly behind the deadly car bombing, according to Ukrainska Pravda, citing an internal source.

The source claimed that Popov was a target because before he embarked on a career in politics, he had been in charge of a pro-Russian volunteer corps that targeted Ukrainians.

Popov’s death comes less than 15 months after he survived a prior attempt on his life, also allegedly arranged by Ukraine’s security services, according to Yurov, who did not elaborate other than to say it was on Sept. 20 last year.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it has launched a criminal probe on charges of terrorism, illegal trafficking and production of explosives in connection with the blast in Luhansk.

Denis Miroshnichenko, chairman of the People’s Council of the Luhansk People’s Republic, expressed his condolences to Popov’s family, calling the former deputy “a principled and hardworking man of a firm character who wholeheartedly cared for the fate of the Fatherland.”

Popov is not the first pro-Kremlin politician from the Russia-annexed Luhansk to have met a violent end since the start of the war.

On Nov. 9, Mikhail Filiponenko, also a former deputy in the Luhansk Regional Parliament, was killed in a strikingly similar car bombing.

Ukraine’s military spy agency swiftly took credit for Filiponenko’s demise, calling him a “war criminal” and describing the hit as a warning that “traitors to Ukraine and collaborator with terrorist Russia… will receive just retribution!”

Russia had previously accused Ukraine’s special services of arranging the car explosion that killed propagandist Daria Dugina outside Moscow last year and the assassination of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a St. Petersburg café in April.