Russian Official Killed by Car Bomb in Ukraine

A Russian election official in an occupied area of Ukraine has reportedly been killed after being targeted with a car bomb.

Russia's Investigative Committee said in a release on Wednesday that an unnamed official, a woman who served as a member of the Kremlin-backed election commission in the occupied Zaporizhzhia city Berdyansk, had been killed in the "terrorist act" on the same morning.

"According to the investigation, on March 6, 2024, in the morning, an improvised explosive device was laid under the vehicle of a voting member of the precinct election commission," the release said.

"When a woman got into the interior of a car parked near a house on Herzen Street in the city of Berdyansk, it worked," the statement continued. "The victim died of her injuries in a medical institution."

The committee went on to say that the ongoing investigation was working to identify "those involved in the commission of this crime" based on "forensic examinations" and statements from witnesses.

A Facebook post by The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (GUR) on Wednesday claimed that the woman killed in the blast was Svitlana Samoilenko, who allegedly "organized [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's pseudo-elections in the occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region."

"During the preparations for the pseudo-elections, Putin's Svitlana Samoilenko sought to curry favor with Muscovites: she intimidated and terrorized Berdyansk residents, forcing them to participate in illegal fake voting," GUR said.

While releasing the victim's purported identity, Ukraine did not explicitly claim responsibility for the car bombing.

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email on Wednesday evening.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, wrote in a Telegram post on Wednesday that the bombing was an attempt to "intimidate" pro-Russia officials in Zaporizhzhia and prevent their "legitimate expression of will."

"The victim of today's attack by Kiev terrorists was an innocent woman—a mother, wife, patriot of her country, who taught at the city Center for Children's Creativity, raised our children, and worked for the benefit of the Zaporizhzhia region," Balitsky wrote.

"She was a member of the election commission, and this is a planned terrorist act—an attempt to intimidate," he continued. "They hope to prevent our legitimate expression of will, which is impossible."

Berdyansk, located on the northern Sea of Azov coast in southeastern Ukraine, has been under Russian control since only three days after Putin launched his full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.

Zaporizhzhia is one of four Ukrainian regions that Putin claimed to have annexed for Russia in September 2022. He also announced the annexation of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions. Crimea was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

All of the allegedly annexed regions of Ukraine, none of which are currently under full Russian control except Crimea, will participate in Russia's upcoming presidential election, which is set to take place between March 15 and 17.

While Putin is facing a small number of challengers, anti-war candidates have been banned from running, and polls indicate that the incumbent Russian president is virtually guaranteed to be reelected.

However, most international observers believe there will be no fair contest as elections in Russia, and possibly even opinion polls, are manipulated in order to artificially favor Putin.