A major general of Russia’s FSB security service is seriously injured after an explosion at his home in Luhansk.
Yuri Afanasevskii, 64, is in critical condition in hospital, as is his son, who was also reportedly involved in the attack.
A Ukrainian sabotage group reportedly placed explosives in a mobile phone that had been handed to him.
Russian sources blame the Ukrainian secret service SBU for the attack in the Russian-occupied Lugansk People’s Republic.
Afanasevskii was head of customs in the area of Luhansk, Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin’s forces annexed in 2014 and claimed to have annexed to Russia last year.
Yuri Afanasevskii, a major general in Russia’s FSB security services, has reportedly been seriously injured after an explosion at his home in Luhansk
He was sanctioned by Britain, the EU, Canada, Switzerland and Japan.
It was shown that the Major General had financial interests in the British Virgin Islands.
A woman suspected of handing him a mobile phone and a concealed explosive device has been arrested. She is under investigation for attempted murder and handing over an explosive device to the FSB officer.
She handed him “a mobile phone with an explosive that detonated after the phone was activated. The attacker is in custody, she has already confessed,” the Russian Commission of Inquiry said.
Investigators had “interrogated a wide range of people” and “seized important items” in response to the explosion.
According to a report from RT, the wife of the FSB official was also injured in the explosion.
A statement from the Russian Commission of Inquiry said: ‘The man and his son suffered multiple injuries. They are currently in a medical facility.’
Reports of the attack on Afanasevskii came just days after another Russian major general was killed by a drone in Russia while mowing his lawn on his day off.
Alexei Chernykh, deputy chief of a local anti-corruption police branch, was blown up by a drone at his home in the Russian village of Schetinovka, reports said.
The village is just a mile from Russia’s border with Ukraine in Belgorod Oblast, which has been subject to regular drone strikes in recent months as Ukraine ramps up its cross-border attacks.
Telegram broadcaster Baza, which has ties to Russian security services, said a drone dropped a bomb on the Chernykh site on Sunday, August 27.
Afanasevskii is said to have been attacked in the Russian-occupied Luhansk People’s Republic, where fierce fighting is raging (pictured)
Alexei Chernykh (pictured right), deputy head of a local branch of the anti-corruption police, was blown up by a drone at his home in Schetinovka village late last month
“A Ukrainian drone dropped ammunition at its location in Shchetynovka,” the Telegram channel reported. “At the time, Alexey was mowing on his day off,” it added, saying he was killed in the incident.
According to information on his social media account, the police lieutenant colonel would have turned 40 on the day he was allegedly killed.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov accused Ukraine of being behind a drone strike in the region on the same day, saying it had killed a “civilian”.
He accused Ukraine of dropping “an explosive from a drone,” hitting a civilian who was “mowing the lawn at his summer cottage at the time.”
Gladkov said the man died of shrapnel.
He did not name the person who died in the attack.
Ukraine, which has yet to achieve major success with its summer ground offensive, has struck deep into Russia in recent months, including an attack on the Kremlin in May and numerous drone strikes against civilian targets in Moscow.
Ukraine typically does not comment on who is behind attacks on Russian territory, although officials have publicly expressed their satisfaction.
Chernykh’s death, if confirmed, would make him the last senior Russian official to die since Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine.
It has been confirmed by Russian sources that at least six generals have been killed since February 2022 (including four with the rank of major general and two lieutenant general), while Ukraine claims the true number is fifteen.
Be that as it may, the number of Russian generals killed in the conflict is unprecedented since World War II.
The numbers are attributed to senior commanders who personally went into the field to address command problems, the faltering performance of Russian front-line forces, insecure communications, and US intelligence gathering.
In late July, Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov, 51, was killed in an attack believed to have been carried out using a British-supplied storm shadow missile.
Tsokov was personally known to Putin and had been sanctioned by Britain and the EU for his role in the war against Ukraine.
Russian sources have confirmed that at least six generals have been killed since February 2022 (including four who held the rank of major general and two lieutenant generals) – unprecedented numbers since World War II
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday approved the resignation of Oleksii Reznikov as defense minister and Rustem Umerov as head of the main privatization agency, paving the way for Umerov to take over from Reznikov.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he would fire Reznikov and suggested Umerov replace him.
To do this, he demanded that parliament approve their dismissal from their current positions and support Umerov’s appointment as defense minister.
Parliament completed the first phase of the process in two separate votes on Tuesday and is expected to support Umerov’s nomination in a vote on Wednesday. Reznikov resigned on Monday.
These measures represent the biggest shake-up for the defense establishment in eighteen months of war with Russia.
Reznikov has been at the forefront of Kiev’s lobby for Western weapons to fight the Russian invasion, but his departure after months of corruption allegations against his ministry is not expected to have a major impact on military operations.
The Defense Ministry confirmed that parliament had voted to impeach Reznikov, praised his work and listed some of the weapons Ukraine has received since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“He held this office for 22 months and made the impossible possible by ensuring large-scale arms transfers to the #UAarmy from the free world,” the social media platform X said.
It added that F-16 fighter jets, which Kiev has not received so far, “will make Ukraine’s victory inevitable.”
The outcome of the vote to remove Umerov from his current post was confirmed by several lawmakers who attended the parliamentary session.
Umerov, 41, is a Crimean Tatar and former legislator who, since 2020, has been a member of a government task force working on a strategy to end the occupation of Crimea, which was taken and annexed by Russia in 2014.
(TagsToTranslate)dailymail