An officer of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Konopitsyn, was killed when a series of explosions hit the Russian city of Belgorod on Dec. 30, Russian media and Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence reported.

Konopitsyn was sent to Belgorod to work as part of the military investigation department of the Investigative Committee of Russia in November 2023. Before that, Konopitsyn fought against Ukraine as an anti-tank missile platoon commander.

Explosions rocked the Russian border city of Belgorod on Dec. 30. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that the regional center had come under fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Ukrainian media, citing a source in the special services, reported that the Ukrainian Security and Defense Forces had launched a missile attack on military facilities in Belgorod, but that due to “unprofessional actions of Russian air defense” and “planned provocations,” debris from downed missiles fell in the city center.

The Russian authorities claimed 24 people had been killed.

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