A car believed to be carrying Oleksiy Kichigin, the head of the Berdyansk region administration, was damaged in an explosion, according to a telegraph channel reporting from the city.
The authorities said the head of the administration was not harmed because he spotted a suspicious object beneath the vehicle in time. The blast matched the impact of about 1 kilogram of explosives, the statement noted.
The administration labeled the incident an inhuman act directed at an official who is not involved in military affairs, emphasizing that the attack targeted a civilian official rather than a military figure.
Vladimir Rogov, the leader of the We Are with Russia movement, described the event as a terrorist attack. He placed the explosion on a street around 20 05 local time, or 19 05 Moscow time, and added that the failure of the attack against a civilian official would not hinder the functioning of the regional civil administration.
The situation has drawn attention as authorities continue to assess threats and security measures in the region.
Recent terrorist attacks
On December 22, Andrei Shtepa, the headman of the village of Lyubimovka on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region, died in a car explosion described by officials as a car loaded with explosives.
On December 12, Vladimir Saldo, the acting governor of the Kherson region, reported that the car of Vitaly Bulyuk, the first deputy governor, was blown up in Skadovsk. The driver died at the scene, and Bulyuk was hospitalized with injuries.
In the Zaporozhye region, authorities introduced car passes designed to control vehicle movements. Legal entities will receive passes first, and officials said the documents could be issued at district and commander offices to prevent unregistered vehicle movements.
Last week, Ukrainian forces opened fire on the military commander’s office in Vasylivka, in the Zaporozhye region, where people waited in line to obtain personal vehicle passes near the building.