Two Russian spies have been “seriously injured” after a bomb exploded in the engine bay of their vehicle. Footage from the scene shows the white Renault Duster engulfed in flames in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in southeastern Russia. Ukraine. The two men, believed to be agents of Putin’s Federal Security Service (FSB), were trapped after the “door jammed” in the car as it burned, with one of them having a “limb torn off” as a result of the explosion.
Local sources suggested that “one is near death and the second cannot work for a long time”.
A day before the attack, the pair had visited a local gym but parked “far away and walked”. The move reportedly aroused suspicion, as it is a tactic often used by Russian spies to ensure their safety.
An established Ukrainian news service, based in Melitopol, wrote on Telegram: “This morning, after a workout, both of them went for a coffee in the cafe-shop Tort on Bogdan Khmelnitsky Avenue.
“Then they got in the car and when they backed up there was an explosion in the engine compartment.
“One of them had his leg blown off after the explosion. On the part of the second intelligence officer, the door jammed in the car and he was burned alive.
Russian sources later said: “Saboteurs blew up a car in which two persons from the Russian special services were driving.”
They added: “Both were seriously injured, one of them had a limb torn off.”
Ivan Fedorov, the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, confirmed the blast on Telegram, but said the identities of the victims are still being “clarified”.
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Melitopol, a port city in the partially occupied Zaporizhia region, has a thriving underground partisan network that regularly targets Russian-installed officials and their associates.
The main bridge to the city, used by Russia to transport military equipment, was recently damaged by unexplained explosions.
It has been suggested that it was an attack orchestrated by pro-Ukrainian civilians with the help of Ukraine’s special forces.
On Thursday, the Russian-appointed chief of a small village in the Kherson region, on the southern bank of the Dnipro River, was killed in a car bomb explosion reportedly carried out by the Ukrainian state border guard.
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