A ‘collaborator’ helping organise the Russian Presidential election in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region has been “liquidated”, Ukraine’s security forces have said, after she died in an apparent car bomb explosion.
Earlier Moscow aligned Vladimir Rogov had confirmed the death of one person in an explosion.
Subsequently, the Russian Investigative Committee said a member of the precinct election commission had been killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) placed under her vehicle in the port city of Berdyansk.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine said Svitlana Samoilenko, whom it described as “the organiser of Vladimir Putin’s pseudo-elections in the occupied territories”, had been “liquidated in the temporarily occupied Berdyansk”.
The statement added: “After the enslavement of the city in 2022, the woman voluntarily went to cooperate with Muscovites and received a place in the Russian occupation administration.
“The so-called military commandant of Berdyansk, Colonel Bardin of the Soviet Union, ‘appointed’ Svitlana Samoilenko to the position of ‘deputy mayor for economy, agriculture and finance’.”
Her husband and adult son also “served the Russian occupiers”, the statement revealed.
It continued: “Due to the fact of Svitlana Samoilenko’s cooperation with the Russian occupation army, the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine have opened criminal proceedings under Part 5 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code.
“During the preparations for the pseudo-elections, Svitlana Samoilenko’s Putin sought to curry favour with Muscovites: she intimidated and terrorised Berdyan residents, forcing them to participate in illegal fake voting.”
The statement did not claim responsibility for carrying out the attack.
Russian police and security forces are believed to be searching for suspects following the explosion.
Six election officials working for Moscow – including two members of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party – were fatally poisoned last month in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, approximately 50 miles from Berdyansk.
Ukrainian news website DonPress claimed: “It seems that saboteurs have become more active in the city again. But now their victims were not the military, but the organisers of Putin’s elections.”
The report continued: “All the dead were poisoned by food and beer, which were delivered to them from one of the city’s restaurants, the publication claims.
“Lethal doses of arsenic were added to food and drinks; unfortunately, no one survived after this dinner.”
It added: “The restaurant where the food was delivered from was checked and no traces of poison were found.
“But the courier who delivered the poisoned lunch and beer allegedly disappeared without a trace.”
