Ukraine announced on Wednesday that it had assassinated a Russian officer responsible for war crimes with a car bomb inside Russia.
Veniamin Majerin, who died over the weekend, was the deputy commander of the Russian gendarmerie in Kemerovo, southwestern Siberia, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Service said.
The Russian Guard special forces he led are suspected of being involved in “war crimes and genocide against the Ukrainian people” in Kiev during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, intelligence agencies said.
CNN has contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian National Guard for comment.
A video released by intelligence agencies shows an unidentified person holding a remote control, then pans to reveal a silver car on the road, before the car explodes into flames.
In the video, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Service said it carried out surveillance against Mazarin in an operation aimed at “eliminating the executioners of the Ukrainian people.”
The reported murder of Mazherin is the latest in a series of assassinations of Russian dignitaries on the country’s territory.
In April, Russian General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car explosion outside Moscow. Russian authorities said they had indicted a “member of Ukrainian special services” on terrorism charges, but Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the incident.
A few months earlier, a top Russian commander accused of using chemical weapons in Ukraine was killed by a remotely detonated bomb planted on an electric scooter outside his Moscow apartment. A person familiar with the operation told CNN that Ukrainian security services were involved in the assassination.
In November 2023, Ukraine announced that it was involved in the assassination of Mikhail Filiponenko, a member of the Kremlin-established parliament in the occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk. Filiponenko was also killed by a car bomb.
On the front line in southern Ukraine, Russian forces attacked a children’s hospital in Kherson on Wednesday, leaving many injured, regional authorities said.
Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the military administration of the Kherson region, said in a Telegram post that a 9-year-old girl suffered landmine injuries and shrapnel injuries to her lower legs. Several other children and medical workers were also injured, according to the Kherson district prosecutor’s office.
In a post on X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the shelling a “deliberate attack by Russia against the basic security of life, especially for children, medical personnel (and) local communities,” and said there was “no way” Russia was unaware of the shelling.
“Russia is now the world’s largest terrorist organization and is not only prolonging the terrorist war, but doing everything possible to seize the opportunity to end it,” the Ukrainian leader continued.
“Terrorists must be dealt with only as they deserve, with strength and just treatment. Thank you to everyone who supports Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
Meanwhile, on Ukraine’s eastern front, Russian troops have invaded the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, according to Ukrainian officials. The VII Corps of the Ukrainian Airborne Forces announced in a telegram on Wednesday that tens of thousands of troops were massing in the direction of Pokrovsk.
CNN has asked Russia’s Ministry of Defense for comment on the developments in Pokrovsk and the reported attack in Kherson.
