Ukrainian partisans living in Nova Kakhovka, a city in the occupied Kherson region, blew up an office building that is home to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political party, according to Ukraine’s National Resistance Center.
The attack was reportedly carried out Tuesday morning. The resistance center said in a statement that the “explosions rang out in Nova Kakhovka near the entrance to the office of the occupying party ‘United Russia’ and not far from the ‘polling station.'”
“Thus, the forces of the resistance movement sent a ‘hello’ to the occupiers and stopped the fake ‘election’ process in the occupied city,” Kyiv officials added.
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Newsweek could not independently verify the report and an email was sent to Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment on Tuesday night.
The attack comes a few weeks before Russia’s presidential election in March, which will mark the first time that citizens living in occupied territories in southern and eastern Ukraine will be allowed to vote in a Russian election. Putin claimed to annex the four territories—the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions—in fall 2022, although Kyiv and the West called the move illegal.
According to Ukraine’s resistance center, Russia is attempting to “hide” that the attack on Tuesday was carried out by “forces resisting the occupation at [temporarily occupied territories].” Instead, to not “sow panic,” Moscow has claimed that the explosion was caused by a drone attack.
“The Center of National Resistance calls on citizens of Ukraine not to participate in the Kremlin’s propaganda production called ‘elections,'” the center said in its statement. “At the same time, the Resistance Movement notes that every collaborator who helps organize the ‘election process’ will be held accountable for their actions.”
Attacks have been carried out at several other United Russia locations within occupied Ukraine. Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov reported in September that Putin’s party headquarters in the city of Polohy, in Zaporizhzhia, was destroyed during what the Ukrainian official described as “hellish pseudo-elections.” At the time, Russia was holding local elections within its four occupied territories. Western and Kyiv officials called the process a sham.
A member of the United Russia party was also killed in a car bomb explosion in Nova Kakhovka in October, according to Russian state-owned media. Ukraine did not claim responsibility for either of those attacks.
Kyiv officials have strongly condemned efforts to hold elections within its occupied territories, calling on world leaders in December “to resolutely condemn Russia’s intention to hold presidential elections in the occupied Ukrainian territories, and to impose sanctions on those involved in their organization and conduct.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.