Ukraine used US-supplied HIMARS missiles to strike a meeting of senior officials collaborating with Russia, occupation officials say

Advertisement
Ukraine used US-supplied HIMARS missiles to strike a meeting of senior officials collaborating with Russia, occupation officials say
A Russian soldier on guard in Kherson, south Ukraine, on May 20, 2022.AP
  • Several pro-Kremlin officials in Ukraine's occupied territories have been killed or attacked.
  • In Kherson, at least one official was killed in an attack using HIMARS missiles, occupation officials said.
Advertisement

Ukraine struck an office building where pro-Kremlin collaborators were meeting in Kherson, the latest apparent attack on authorities in occupied territories, occupation officials have claimed.

Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy leader of Kherson, told Russian state TV that US-provided HIMARS rockets struck the area around his office on Friday, per Reuters.

Videos taken after the explosion appear to show smoke billowing from the damaged building.

Stremousov said that while it was too early to confirm the number of casualties, several people had been killed and wounded.

The Kremlin-appointed labor minister for Kherson, Alla Barkhatnova, said she was injured in the attack and her driver was killed, Russian media reported.

Advertisement

Separately, the prosecutor-general of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic and his deputy were killed in an explosion at their office on Friday, the head of the separatist administration said on Telegram.

Ukraine has not taken responsibility for either attack, which Kremlin collaborators have labeled "terrorist" acts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's senior adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied that Ukraine was behind the Luhansk explosion, suggesting on Twitter it was likely due to organized criminal groups or an attempt to get rid of witnesses of war crimes.

There have also been reports of attacks on officials in the occupied city of Berdyansk.

While there have previously been sporadic reports of attacks on occupation officials, they have not typically been on such a coordinated scale or through the use of long-range munitions.

Advertisement

Ukraine is currently waging a successful counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, where it is making sizable gains, along with counterattacks in the southern region of Kherson.

{{}}