A Ukrainian group that coordinates with partisans living in Russian-occupied territory last week claimed to have killed five Russian officials in the Russian-occupied region of Kherson, Newsweek reported.
In a post on Telegram, the National Resistance Center claimed that Ukrainian partisans in the southeastern village of Yuvileyne in Kherson Oblast attacked a building where Russian officials in the region were meeting. The center claimed that five “high-ranking” officials were killed in the attack.
The National Resistance Center was established in the weeks following Russia’s invasion by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces to unite Ukrainians living in regions occupied by Russia.
The Telegram channel Astra, a channel used by Russian journalists censored by the Kremlin, also reported an attack on a building in Yuvileyne. However, according to Astra, it was only four officials, all Russian police officers, who were killed.
Astra reported that sources described the building as the headquarters for the Nova Kakhovka Department of Internal Affairs and said the building was destroyed in shelling. Seventeen workers in the building were also injured, Astra reported, and at least 5 vehicles were damaged.
Astra identified the dead as Russian Police Maj. Arthur Dzhunusov, Police Maj. Vladimir Novikov, Police Capt. Sergei Novikov, and Senior Police Lt. Mergen Nimgirov.
According to Astra, Maj. Dzhunusov was the deputy chief of police for the region’s Russian police department.
Newsweek attempted to verify the claims about the attack but was unable to do so. An email to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment on the alleged attack was not answered.
Fighting in Kherson and Kharkiv continues to be intense as Ukraine’s winter begins.
Over the weekend, Russian shelling in Kherson reportedly killed at least three civilians, including an elderly man, according to a Reuters report.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Kherson region was shelled twenty times in a single day.
