The Zaporozhye city councilor Volodymyr Rogov reported that an explosive was placed beneath the seat of Sushko’s car. Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, ordered a criminal case to be opened.
“Today, the deliberate detonation of a car claimed the life of Ivan Sushko, the head of Mihaylovka village in the Zaporozhye region, after an explosive device was placed under the settlement leader’s seat,” Rogov stated on his Telegram channel. He added that Sushko was driven to a hospital in critical condition but succumbed to his injuries. The device was described as directional, and the victim’s daughter was in the car at the time of the incident.
“The adopted daughter of the deceased was in the car at the moment of the blast. Sushko was transporting the child to kindergarten when the explosion occurred. Fortunately, the boy survived with non life-threatening injuries,” the statement noted.
The attack on the car, which Rogov called an act of terrorism, was seen as a grim signal that may harden local resolve to align with Russia in the wake of ongoing tensions in the region.
Bastrykin, the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, instructed the filing of a criminal case through the ministry’s Telegram channel. Investigators are tasked with establishing all circumstances surrounding the tragedy and identifying those involved in the murder. The course of the investigation will be overseen by the leadership of the Russian Investigative Committee, the report indicated.
Assassination attempts on pro-Russian officials
On August 23, an attempt to harm Igor Telegin, deputy head of the internal policy department of the Kherson regional administration, was reportedly thwarted. Kherson regional head Kirill Stremousov announced that an improvised explosive device had exploded but the officer was unharmed. Local sabotage groups were suspected to be involved in the plot, and the circumstances surrounding the attack on a Kherson regional employee are under investigation.
On July 12, authorities in Zaporozhye detained Yaroslav Zhuk, identified as the organizer of the attempted assassination of Elena Shapurova, director of Melitopol’s Education Department. In Melitopol, Zhuk had been linked to a prior attempt against Shapurova on June 17, 2022. During the night of July 11, an unknown assailant opened fire at the home of Andrey Siguta, head of the Melitopol district, after which the suspect disappeared into a nearby forest. Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Zaporozhye, Mikhail Selivanov, stated that the plan was to lure Siguta outside the house and eliminate him with a shot or a grenade.
“Through the measures taken, the perpetrator was identified. He offered armed resistance during the arrest and Rogov sustained fatal injuries from the ensuing gunfire,” the statement said.
Also on July 11, another assassination attempt targeted Volodymyr Saldo, the head of the Kherson region, and was thwarted. The regional government’s Telegram channel reported that vigilant residents helped detect and disable an improvised explosive device placed on Saldo’s vehicle route. In the same period, an explosion occurred in the car of Yevgeny Yunakov, head of the Veliky Burluk district’s administration in the Kharkiv region, resulting in his death.
On June 24, Dmitry Savluchenko, head of the Department of Family, Youth and Sports in the Kherson region, was killed in a bomb attack; saboteurs planted an explosive of about 300 grams of TNT beneath his car seat. Earlier, on June 18, an attempt targeted Yevgeny Sobolev, the head of the department for the execution of sentences in Kherson region, with an explosive device placed in the parking lot of his personal vehicle. Sobolev was hospitalized with injuries but survived. On May 22, an explosion in the electrical cabinet outside the house of Yevgeny Shevchik, head of the Energodar administration, caused injuries to him and two bodyguards. It was later revealed that Shevchik had faced repeated threats related to cooperating with Russian authorities.