A turncoat Ukrainian official was killed in a car explosion on Russian soil.
Oleksandr Slisarenko, the former deputy head of the Russian-imposed administration in the occupied Kharkiv Oblast, died after succumbing to his injuries after his car exploded in Belgorod, Russia, on November 16, according to Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform.
The car that Slisarenko had been driving collided with another vehicle, causing the explosion that resulted in his death. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) is believed to be behind the incident.
Slisarenko had previously worked in Ukraine’s internal affairs agencies but was an active participant in Kharkiv’s 2014 pro-Russia demonstrations, which came in response to the ousting of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was seen as Russian-leaning.
In 2021-2022, he fought against Ukrainian forces as part of the Rys special unit of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR). He was appointed deputy head of the occupation administration of the Kharkiv region for internal policy in the summer of 2022.
“The SBU declared Slisarenko suspected of treason, but he did not appear in court. That is why the court itself came to him,” a law enforcement official told Ukrinform on Friday. “The Russian authorities remain silent about the undermining of Slisarenko even today.”
Newsweek reached out to the SBU via email for comment.
A day before the news broke, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had teased “a report by the head of the SBU.”
“There are new results in countering enemy operations and collaborators. Important results,” Zelensky said in a Thursday post on Telegram.
Zelensky said in the post that there was “maximum attention” being paid to the Donetsk areas, especially the Kharkiv region. He thanked “every soldier, every sergeant, every commander” who has helped Ukraine on the battlefield as well as “everyone who cares about our country.”
The war in Ukraine continues nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the neighboring country on February 24, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for the lack of peace talks on Wednesday, a move that analysts say mounted pressure on the West to push Ukraine back to the negotiating table.
Last week, it was reported that three Russian officers of Russia’s Security Services (FSB) and another were in intensive care after being poisoned from ordering restaurant takeaway in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol. A Zaporizhzhia-based Ukrainian underground group is suspected of being responsible for adding arsenic and rat poison to the food.
“The other day, there was another group of eliminated enemies, namely poisoned ones,” the exiled mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said in a TV broadcast. “Enemy Telegram channels are even writing about it—they ordered food in a cafe and after eating it, they all got poisoned, and some of them died.”
“This is the effective resistance that continues to be exerted in Melitopol even under occupation,” Fedorov said.
Source : Newsweek
