MOSCOW, Nov 12 (Reuters) – A member of the Russian military was killed after the car he was driving was blown up in St Petersburg, investigators said on Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest in a series of targeted killings that Russia has blamed on Ukraine.
Video showed that military police had sealed off the area in the Pushkinsky District of the city as investigators and forensic scientists worked at the scene. A bomb-damaged dark blue SUV stood on a road littered with blast debris next to what looked like an empty passenger bus which appeared to have also suffered damage.
“Investigative authorities have opened a criminal case into the murder of a member of the armed forces,” a statement from Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for previous assassinations of senior military officials and people linked to Moscow’s war effort.
Ukrainian sources have claimed responsibility in some cases, while denying others. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on Thursday.
Another serviceman was killed in a car explosion in the same district of Russia’s second largest city on August 27. Other car bomb attacks have occurred in Moscow and Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, in recent months.
Referring to Thursday’s killing, online newspaper Fontanka, which is known to have good contacts within law enforcement, reported that a 31-year-old male suspect, who has since fled Russia, planted the bomb on the underside of a colonel’s car after at least a month of surveillance.
The bomb was transported to Russia via balloon from the Baltic states, Fontanka said, citing an anonymous source.
Neither the identity of the soldier killed in the blast nor that of the suspect has been confirmed by official sources.
Reuters could not independently verify the information published by Fontanka.
(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Robert Harvey;Editing by Andrew Osborn and Philippa Fletcher)
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