A Russian FSB major-general suffered life-threatening injuries following a blast at his home in Luhansk.
According to a report, a Ukrainian agency allegedly provided Afanasevskii with a cell phone with explosives. Both Yuri Afanasevskii, 64, and his son are in critical condition. Russian media has reported that the FSB official’s spouse was also hurt in the blast.
The Russian government holds the Ukrainian SBU secret agency responsible for the assault inside the Russian-controlled Luhansk People’s Republic, according to Russian sources.
Before the Russian president’s troops took the Luhansk region of Ukraine in 2014 and declared it part of Russia the following year, Afanasevskii was in charge of customs there.
A woman is being questioned for attempted assassination and giving an explosive device to an FSB agent. She handed him an explosively-charged cell phone that went off when he used it. According to the Russian Investigative Committee, the suspect is caught and has already confessed.
Others have been interrogated, and evidence has been seized as part of the investigation.
In other news, the Ukrainian parliament has cleared the way for Rustem Umerov to succeed Oleksii Reznikov as defense minister and head of the country’s primary privatization agency.
Last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was replacing Reznikov with Umerov.
Reports show the Crimean Tatar Umerov, 41, is a former congressman and the current chairman of Ukraine’s State Property Fund. He was involved in the wartime talks during the Black Sea grain agreement.
Umerov was a lawmaker responsible for the legislation that destroyed farmland and caused severe water shortages on the dry peninsula by damming a canal built by the Soviets.
Umerov was on the delegation that went to Moscow in March 2023 to try to work out a ceasefire. Once negotiations broke down, Kremlin-backed outlets labeled him a spy for the United States.
