Overview
- Russian and local Telegram sources report that Robert Shageyev died after an explosive device detonated near an outdoor stairwell on Stoletovsky Avenue in Sevastopol on Thursday.
- Multiple accounts say the device was hidden in a trash bin and produced a loud blast that residents first mistook for a drone strike.
- Authorities say a 32-year-old woman was detained at the scene and that the FSB and Sevastopol’s governor announced she confessed to acting on orders from Ukrainian special services.
- Shageyev had defected to Russia in 2014 and served as a captain in the Black Sea Fleet’s 4th Separate Submarine Brigade, which Ukraine says has launched Kalibr missile strikes on its territory since 2022.
- Officials also reported a separate overnight incident in Sevastopol that killed five emergency workers handling a munition, a development that heightens security concerns and could increase retaliatory operations and tightened controls in occupied Crimea.