A former Ukrainian naval officer who defected to Russia was killed in an explosion in Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Robert Shageyev died Friday after a blast on Stoletovsky Street in Sevastopol, according to Britain's The Telegraph and Russian state news agency Tass.
The explosion was loud enough that nearby residents initially mistook it for a Ukrainian drone strike. Shageyev sustained fatal injuries at the scene.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it arrested a 32-year-old Russian woman in connection with the attack. According to the FSB, the woman acted on orders from a Ukrainian special forces unit and planted an explosive device in a trash can on Stoletovsky Street while a police officer was descending a nearby staircase.
Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev stopped short of officially identifying the victim but described the incident as "a cold-blooded crime targeting an officer." He said authorities had confirmed that the woman carried out the act on instructions from Ukrainian special services and showed no remorse for her actions.
Shageyev had served as captain of the Ukrainian Navy submarine Zaporizhzhia when Russia seized Crimea in 2014, at which point he defected to the Russian side. He subsequently served as deputy commander of Russia's 4th Independent Submarine Brigade.
The Zaporizhzhia was a Project 641-class diesel-electric submarine and had been the only vessel operated by the Ukrainian Navy before Russian forces captured it in March 2014.
Myrotvorets, an unofficial Ukrainian website that compiles profiles of individuals classified as war criminals, listed his death as an "elimination."
bbo@heraldcorp.com
