Moscow-installed proxy official and former military commander Mikhail Filiponenko was killed when his car exploded in Russian-occupied Luhansk, Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) confirmed on Nov. 8.
Filiponenko was allegedly involved in the organization of torture chambers in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast, “where prisoners of war and civilian hostages were subjected to inhumane torture,” HUR said on Telegram.
The military intelligence agency said that “Filiponenko had personally brutally tortured people,” calling the proxy official a “war criminal.”
According to HUR, the assassination was carried out in cooperation with Ukrainian partisans in Luhansk. The explosion reportedly took place at around 8:30 a.m. local time on Nov. 8, killing Filiponenko on the spot.
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HUR revealed the address of Filiponenko’s home in Luhansk, warning that it was aware of “all addresses of traitors and places of their service to terrorist Russia in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.”
The city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine has been occupied by Russia since the first invasion of the Donbas in 2014.
Russian state-run media first reported on the killing of Filiponenko earlier the same day. TASS noted that it was not the first time a car bomb had been used in an attempt on his life — Filiponenko’s car was previously blown up in February 2023.
Russian officials, their proxies, and collaborators have been routinely targeted in both occupied parts of Ukraine and in Russia. Kyiv does not typically comment on the attacks.
Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician who fled Ukraine in 2014, was shot in occupied Crimea on Oct. 27. He survived the attack but was hospitalized with severe injuries.
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