Ukraine serviceman killed in Kyiv car blast

KYIV

A suspected car bombing in Kyiv on June 27 killed a Ukrainian soldier in an incident classified as a “terrorist act” by police, the interior ministry said.

“The deceased was a serviceman in the armed forces,” ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said at a briefing.  

Shevchenko said that judging by initial indications it appeared “obvious” that the blast was caused by an explosive device, adding that investigators were probing it as terrorism.

“At the present time the picture gathered of the crime suggests it was a planned terrorist act,” Shevchenko said.

The ministry said the dead man was driving the vehicle.

The blast is the latest deadly incident to rock the capital of the crisis-hit country, which is battling a bloody Russian-backed insurgency in its eastern regions.

In early June a Ukrainian volunteer commander originally from the Russian region of Chechnya who had once been jailed on suspicion of plotting to kill President Vladimir Putin was shot and seriously wounded by a would-be assassin. 

In March former Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov turned Kremlin critic was shot dead in broad daylight in central Kyiv.

Last year high-profile independent journalist Pavel Sheremet was also killed in a car bombing in central Kyiv.