Bomb kills traffic cop in occupied Ukrainian city - Russian-installed officials

The deputy chief of traffic police in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Berdiansk died in hospital on Friday after being wounded in a bomb blast, local Russian-installed officials said. In a statement posted on Telegram, the Russian-installed Berdiansk authorities said Alexander Kolesnikov had been killed in a "terrorist attack" that they blamed on "the Kyiv regime". Ukraine's defence ministry and military intelligence did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The deputy chief of traffic police in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Berdiansk died in hospital on Friday after being wounded in a bomb blast, local Russian-installed officials said. In a statement posted on Telegram, the Russian-installed Berdiansk authorities said Alexander Kolesnikov had been killed in a "terrorist attack" that they blamed on "the Kyiv regime".

Ukraine's defence ministry and military intelligence did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Berdiansk, a port of around 100,000 people on the Azov Sea, was captured by Russia in February. The incident there was the latest in a series of apparent assassinations of Russian-backed officials in occupied areas of Ukraine.

This month, the deputy head of the Russian-imposed administration of Nova Khakovka was shot dead in his home, while in June a senior official in Kherson region's Russian-installed administration was killed in a car bomb.