A midday explosion on Taras Shevchenko Street in Russian-occupied Luhansk on 3 July killed Manolis Pilavov, the city’s former Russian-installed mayor, and wounded at least three other people, according to the state news agency TASS. Emergency officials said an improvised explosive device detonated at the entrance of a residential building as the 60-year-old was opening the door. Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had launched a terrorism investigation and that its officers, together with the FSB and Interior Ministry, examined the blast site. Local occupation authorities confirmed Pilavov’s death and reported that one of the injured is in serious condition. Ukrainian media outlets, citing unnamed sources in the Security Service of Ukraine, attributed the operation to the SBU, a claim Kyiv has not officially confirmed. Pilavov led the occupation administration of Luhansk from December 2014 until November 2023 and has been on Ukraine’s wanted list since 2015 for alleged attempts to overthrow the constitutional order and undermine the country’s territorial integrity. The strike fits a pattern of recent attacks on Russian proxy officials in territories Moscow holds in eastern Ukraine.