What's happened
A car bombing in Sevastopol, Crimea, killed Russian naval officer Valery Trankovsky on November 13, 2024. Ukraine's security services reportedly orchestrated the attack, targeting Trankovsky for his role in missile strikes against Ukrainian civilians. The incident highlights ongoing tensions and targeted violence in the region.
Why it matters
What the papers say
According to The Independent, the Ukrainian SBU claimed responsibility for the attack, labeling Trankovsky a 'war criminal' for his orders to strike civilian targets. The Guardian corroborated this, noting that Trankovsky had been under surveillance prior to the bombing. Meanwhile, The Moscow Times reported that Russian authorities have launched a terrorism investigation into the incident, indicating the seriousness with which they view the attack. This reflects a broader pattern of targeted violence against Russian military figures, as highlighted by multiple sources, including The Moscow Times, which noted that such assassinations have become more frequent since the invasion began.
How we got here
The assassination of Valery Trankovsky, chief of staff of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, follows a series of targeted attacks on Russian military personnel since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine has increasingly employed clandestine operations against figures it deems responsible for war crimes.
More on these topics
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Sevastopol is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Sevastopol has been administered as a federal city of the Russian Federation.
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Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast.
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Crimea is a peninsula located on the northern coast of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe that is almost completely surrounded by both the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast. The status of Crimea is disputed.
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Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Covering an area of 17,125,200 square kilometres, it is the largest country in the world by area, spanning more than one-eighth of the Earth's in