Konstantin Ivaschenko, a member of the local council of the pro-Russian opposition Party Platform for Life, was “appointed” mayor of the Sea of Azov port on April 6 by Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin, as most of the city was devastated by its continued shelling. of Russia. The city has been under Russian control for months, with the last Ukrainians leaving the last bastion of the Azovstal steelworks in May after weeks spent underground in harrowing conditions. The assassination attempt was reported on Saturday by a Russian state television reporter, who told Telegram that “an explosive device was placed at the entrance to the Mariupol zoo and exploded the moment the official arrived,” adding that Mr. Ivaschenko was not injured. A little later, Petro Andryushchenko, assistant to the Ukrainian mayor of the city Vadym Boychenko, also wrote about the attack on the messaging service, adding: “Unfortunately, it was not very successful. But this is just the beginning.” The city of Mariupol pictured during Russia’s offensive, days after Konstantin Ivashenko took over as mayor (Andrey Borodulin/AFP via Getty Images) Russian state news agency RIA Novosti also reported that an assassination attempt had taken place. It cited sources at the scene who said there was “applause” as Mr Ivaschenko passed and that there were no casualties, but said there was no official confirmation of the incident. A vehicle from the explosives laboratory of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic’s Interior Ministry was later working at the site, RIA reported. According to Mr Andryushchenko, an aide to the Ukrainian mayor, Mr Ivaschenko told Mariupol residents shortly after assuming the title of mayor that the city would be annexed and integrated into Russia’s Rostov region, which borders eastern Ukraine . The reported attempt on his life comes as Moscow undergoes a series of attacks behind Russian lines, with a series of explosions in annexed Crimea – previously considered safe – reportedly wiping out parts of its military equipment. Russian authorities announced on Saturday that they had shot down Ukrainian drones in Crimea, one of which was said to be over the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol – just three weeks after an explosion at the same compound injured six people and caused unrest in the Russian navy Day holiday. Earlier in the week, a Russian ammunition depot on the annexed peninsula was hit by an explosion, while nine Russian warplanes were reportedly destroyed at a Crimean air base last week – an attack that a Western official claimed rendered half of Russia’s naval force useless in the Black Sea. Russia has seized several cities in southern Ukraine and last month seized the Donbass region of Luhansk. But its control of these areas appears to have been met with resistance, with Kyiv claiming this week that teachers are being kidnapped and tortured for refusing to teach pro-Kremlin material. On Saturday, 100 miles west of Mariupol, a Ukrainian airstrike hit targets in Melitopol, the largest Russian-controlled city in the Zaporizhia region, which the city’s Ukrainian mayor claimed was “a precision hit on one of the Russian military fundamentals”.
