The Russian-backed administrator of small town in the Kharkiv region was killed in a car bomb, Russian authorities said on Monday. The Russians said the attack was possibly carried out by 'Ukrainian saboteurs'.
The dead official has been identified as Yevgeny Yunakov, who was the chief administrator of Velikyi Burluk town.
'Ukrainian Sabotage'
Russia's TASS news agency said the official was killed by a 'Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group'.
The news came on o a day when at least six more people were killed in Russian rocket attacks around Kharkiv.
The eastern region of Kharkiv was one of the earliest to fall under the control of Russians in the initial phase of the war. Though the Ukrainians won back parts of the region subsequently, Russia still has control over a vast swathe of the region.
Attack in Kherson
Late in June, a car bomb attack had killed a senior official in the Russian-controlled administration of Kherson city in the south, which was captured in the early phase of the war.
Though Ukraine did not take responsibility for the attack, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence told Reuters resistance against the aggressors will continue. "Those people who betrayed Ukraine and all those wretches who came here to destroy our country will be destroyed," the official told the agency.
Another attack was launched in Russian occupied Zaporizhzhia, where the Ukrainian resistance fighters targeted the Russian-installed district head of Melitopol. The civil Russian-appointed administration of the city said later the assailant was killed during the encounter.
Apartment Bombing Toll Rises
Meanwhile, Ukraine has said thedeath toll from a Russian missile attack on the apartment building in the eastern town of Chasiv Yar has risen to 33.
"In total, since the beginning of the work, the bodies of 33 dead people, including 1 child (born approximately in 2013), have been found at the scene, and 9 people have been rescued from the rubble. Works are ongoing," Ukraine's ministry of internal affairs said.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will put together a "million-strong" unit to recapture the southern territories lost to Russia. The unit will have western weapons, the president said. Zelenskiy has said the military's immediate goal is to recapture the territories around the Black Sea coast, control over which is crucial for the country's economic survival in the future.
