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Bomb kills Shageev in Sevastopol
A bomb attack in Sevastopol, in Russian-annexed Crimea, killed a Russian military officer on Thursday, and the regional governor said a woman was arrested on suspicion of assassinating him on behalf of Ukrainian special services.
“A Russian military officer was killed in a bomb attack on Thursday in Russian-annexed Crimea”
Reuters reported that the attack took place in Sevastopol, the biggest city in Russian-annexed Crimea, and that the regional governor Mikhail Razvozhayev did not identify the victim or the suspect.
Unverified Telegram channels named the victim as Robert Shageyev, describing him as a former Ukrainian naval officer who switched allegiance to Russia during Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014, and said he had been commanding the Ukrainian submarine Zaporizhzhia at the time.
The Irish Sun and other outlets tied the blast to a trash-bin device, saying the explosive device erupted at around 10am local time and killed Robert Shageev, a former Ukrainian submarine commander who defected to Russia and was serving as a Russian Ministry of Defence officer.
Razvozhaev calls it terrorism
Mikhail Razvozhaev, the governor of Sevastopol, described the incident as a "cynical crime" against a Russian officer and said the perpetrator was "already testifying" after being detained.
The Irish Sun quoted Razvozhaev saying, "This is a cynical crime against an officer," and added that the investigation had established she was acting on the orders of the Ukrainian special services and showed no remorse.
CNN’s report, citing a Ukraine defense ministry spokesperson, said the Zaporizhzhia had been taken over and placed under the flag of the Russian naval fleet when its commander abandoned it, while CNN also said Ukraine had not publicly commented on the attack.
Meduza reported that the FSB detained a Russian citizen born in 1994 on suspicion of carrying out the attack and said the explosive device was planted in a trash bin next to a bench on Stoletovsky Prospekt, with witnesses describing the man climbing stairs with a friend when the blast occurred.
Wider violence and next steps
The attack in Sevastopol coincided with a separate incident overnight in the same city, where Razvozhaev said five people were killed during an operation to dispose of an explosive device.
“five people were killed in Sevastopol overnight during an operation to dispose of an explosive device”
Reuters said Razvozhayev separately reported five people were killed in Sevastopol overnight during an operation to dispose of an explosive device, and CNN similarly reported that five other people—four Russian service members and one security guard—were killed as they tried to clear an area of Ukrainian bombs.
The New York Post framed the assassination as acting on Kyiv’s behalf, saying a 32-year-old Russian woman allegedly received orders from Ukraine’s intelligence network to kill Robert Shageev and that investigators claimed she confessed and showed no remorse.
Meduza added that a court in Krasnodar Krai fined Margarita Reut 30,000 rubles in August 2025 under an administrative statute on “discrediting” the military and sentenced her to two days of administrative detention for failing to comply with a lawful police order.