A pro-Kremlin deputy from the occupied city of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine was killed in a car bomb attack. Mikhail Filiponenko, a lawmaker in the Russian-controlled Luhansk Assembly and former top security commander in the region, died after a bomb planted in his car exploded, a local news agency reported, citing his son.
Filiponenko, who participated in the pro-Russian separatist movement in Lugansk since 2014, had been one of the main commanders of the army of the so-called Lugansk People’s Republic, established after the 2014 uprising and which lasted until Russia annexed those territories in October 2022. Already in February of that year, a few days before the start of the large-scale invasion, there was an attack on his car. Filiponenko survived, but his driver was injured.
On September 10, 2023, Filiponenko was elected as a deputy to the People’s Council of the Lugansk People’s Republic for the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and became head of that party in Lugansk. Filiponenko was married and had two children.
Bomb explosions targeting representatives of Russian-backed authorities in occupied parts began since Russia ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
“An hour ago, in Lugansk, our colleague, deputy of the People’s Council, former head of the department of the People’s Militia, the creator of the people’s militia of the republic, Colonel Mikhail Yuryevich Filiponenko, died tragically. We mourn together with his family! and loved ones!” wrote his colleague, deputy Yuri Yurov, on the Telegram channel.