Photo: the Russian Investigative Committee

A prison official was killed in a car explosion in occupied Berdyansk in southeastern Ukraine on Sunday.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, an explosive device planted under the car of a penal colony employee detonated while he was inside the vehicle. The victim, who wasn’t named in the statement, was killed at the scene.

Ukrainian military intelligence claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on Telegram and said the victim, whose name was Yevhen Ananievskyi, was “one of the organisers of torture chambers” in a prison colony in Berdyansk.

“Every war crime will be punished with justice,” the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine added.

Berdyansk, a port city to the west of Mariupol, was seized by Russian forces in February 2022. Several Russian-installed officials have been killed in car explosions in occupied territories since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.