Vladimir Putin's forces in occupied Crimea were dealt a hammer blow on Wednesday when a Ukrainian car bomb "liquidated" one of Russia's senior naval officers. Russian captain Valery Trankovsky was killed by an improvised explosive device hidden in his car - which Russia's state investigative committee has labelled an act of "terrorism".

Valery Trankovsky, who headed the 41st brigade of Russia’s Black Sea missile ships, was wiped out in the targeted attack in the city of Sevastopol, a Ukrainian security source told Reuters. The hit — carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine ...

A bomb explosion in Sevastopol killed a senior Russian naval officer, reportedly executed by Ukrainian forces as a high-ranking target for war crimes. The deceased, identified as Valery Trankovsky, was linked to missile strikes causing civilian casualties in Ukraine.

"The Russian captain's legs were blown off and he died of blood loss," a Ukrainian security official told the AFP news agency about the assassination.

A Ukrainian source accuses Valery Trankovsky of committing war crimes by ordering missile attacks on civilians