Bomb explodes in separatist Luhansk’s Prosecutor’s Office: 2 collaborators dead

Prosecutor General of the so-called “Luhansk People’s Republic” (LPR) Sergei Gorenko and Deputy Prosecutor General Ekaterina Steglenko have been killed after an “improvised explosive device” set up at their office exploded on September 16.

“Today, as a result of a terrorist act, Prosecutor-General of the LPR Sergei Gorenko and his deputy Ekaterina Steglenko were killed,” announced the leader of the LPR leader Leonid Pasechnik in a Telegram app post. Pasechnik blames the death of his fellow pro-Russian separatist collaborators on Kyiv, calling Ukraine a “terrorist state”.

⚡️⚡️Deputy Prosecutor General of the #LPR Ekaterina Steglenko also died in an explosion in the building of the Prosecutor General's Office in #Luhansk. pic.twitter.com/VChW9ke083

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 16, 2022

There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

The day before, Pasechnik described the rout of Russian forces and their Luhansk and Donetsk proxies that resulted from a successful counteroffensive in the Kharkiv Region as a “tense situation”. He also acknowledged that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had had “some successes”.

A Russian offensive in the earlier phase of the war, which culminated in a protracted eight-week battle for the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, allowed Russia and the LPR to establish control over virtually the entirety of the Luhansk Region, which the Luhansk separatists claim within its administrative boundaries. The successful Ukrainian counteroffensive, which has reached the Oskil River, between 10 and 20 kilometres from the Luhansk Region’s border, threatens to reverse any gains made by the separatists and their Russian overseers in the area.

Pasechnik called on the residents of the LPR to remain calm, claiming that the separatist authorities had the situation “under control”.