A pro-Russian official in Ukraine’s partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region has been injured in an explosion that authorities called an assassination attempt, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said that an explosive device was placed in a trash can at the entrance of an apartment building in the city of Melitopol.
The explosive was detonated by an unknown individual when the Zaporizhzhia region’s Russia-installed acting deputy construction minister left the building.
The official, whose identity was not made public, was wounded in the blast and taken to a medical facility for treatment.
The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case over an assassination attempt.
A number of pro-Russian officials have been wounded or killed in assassination attempts in Russia’s occupied regions of Ukraine since the Kremlin launched its invasion against Kyiv.
Russia claimed to have annexed the Zaporizhzhia region and three other Ukrainian regions last fall despite its forces not having full control over the region.