A senior Russian military leader has been shot in a assassination attempt in the Russian city of Engels, according to Ukranian military intelligence officials.
Major Oleh Stegachev has served as crew commander of a Russian TU-95 strategic bomber at the Engels air base, Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence said on its Telegram channel.
He is known for his role in launching military strikes on Ukrainian civilian sites, the agency alleges.
His current condition remains unknown though some reports claim he has been fatally wounded. An image being circulated in Ukrainian press shows a car in snowy conditions thought to belong to Stegachev.
The Engels air base – located around 730 kilometers southeast of Moscow and more than a thousand of kilometers from Kyiv – is a military site used by Russia to attack Ukraine with strategic bombers carrying cruise missiles.
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The military intelligence unit said Staegachev suffered gunshot wounds and is still investigating whether he survived his wounds.
The agency did not claim responsibility for the assassination attempt, but issued an explicit warning to the Kremlin.
“We remind you that retribution awaits all war criminals – we know your names, addresses, car numbers, usual routes and habits,” the agency said.
This come as prominent Russian authorities and figures are often targeted by Ukranian military intellgience agencies for their support of Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Illia Kyva, a pro-Russian former lawmaker in the Ukrainian parliament who called for Kyiv’s surrender, was found dead in Moscow Oblast last December.
He was assassinated by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), a Ukraine intelligence source told Reuters.
In April 2022, pro-Russian war blogger Vladen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion in a St. Petersburg cafe – another suspected assassination attempt by Ukraine.
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