Russian officer who ‘destroyed Mariupol’ dies in blast

A senior Russian military officer accused of ordering deadly air strikes on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been killed by an apparent suicide bombing in southern Russia.

Russian conscripts wait for the dispatch at the military registration and enlistment office in the southern Russian city Stavropol, where a senior officer has been killed by an apparent suicide bombing. Picture: Danil Semyonov / AFP

A senior Russian military officer accused of ordering deadly air strikes on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been killed by an apparent suicide bombing in southern Russia.

Zaur Gurtziyev, a major in the Russian armed forces, died in a grenade blast in Stavropol, a city more than 1130km from Moscow, according to Shot, a Telegram channel with links to the security services.

Gurtziyev was also the deputy head of Stavropol, a post to which he was appointed last year as part of a Kremlin project named Time of Heroes, which aims to turn war veterans into members of the political elite.

A security camera video published by Shot showed Gurtziyev standing on the street when he was approached by another man, after which there was an explosion.

The man who is thought to have detonated the grenade was named by Shot as Nikita Penkov, a 29-year-old local. He is believed to have rented a flat in the street where the attack took place. Nothing is known so far about his possible motive. Officials said the bombing may have been organised by Ukraine.

Tens of thousands of civilians are estimated to have died during Russia’s bombing of Mariupol in the spring of 2022. Russia awarded Gurtziyev a medal for bravery over his role in the air strikes, which Ukraine classified as a war crime.

Hundreds of people, including children, are believed to have been killed when Russian war planes bombed a theatre where civilians had sought shelter. The word “deti” [Russian for “children"] had been written in large letters outside in an attempt to prevent an attack.

Ukraine targeted Moscow with drones overnight. Debris from one drone crashed into a block of flats in the south, 16km from Red Square, local media said. No injuries were reported but images from the scene showed blown-out windows and other damage.

The attack came a day after Ukraine launched one of its biggest drone attacks since the start of the war.

A number of Russian military figures have died violently since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In October, Colonel Dmitry Golenkov, who was believed to have been responsible for an attack on a block of flats in Dnipro that killed more than 45 people, was bludgeoned to death in western Russia.

Ukraine’s military intelligence service, which claimed responsibility for his assassination, said he had been killed by a “hammer of justice”.

The Times