Notorious Russian sub commander assassinated on his morning jog

YAHOO NEWS

A Russian submarine commander blamed for atrocities in Ukraine was gunned down on his morning jog in Krasnodar—and his killer likely knew just where to find him thanks to his habit of posting his running routes on a popular exercise app.

Stanislav Rzhitsky, a commander of a submarine in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and the deputy head of mobilization efforts in Krasnodar, was shot four times in the back and chest in broad daylight on Monday morning, according to local media reports. The Investigative Committee has opened a murder investigation into the brazen hit.

Russian media claims investigators believe the 42-year-old’s assassination was “ordered from Ukraine,” though Ukrainian authorities have painted a much murkier picture of the whodunnit mystery. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate on Tuesday confirmed Rzhitsky’s murder but did not claim responsibility for it, noting only that he had commanded a Russian submarine “involved in missile attacks on Ukraine.” They said he’d been shot seven times with a Makarov pistol.

Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov denied that Kyiv had any involvement in the killing, writing on Telegram on Tuesday that the “roots” of the murder “should be sought within Russia itself, where internal protest against the war in Ukraine is growing.

The Krasnodar submarine, equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, was blamed by Ukrainian media for an attack on Vinnytsia last year that killed 27 people. Rzhitsky was also listed in a Ukrainian database that names and shames all those accused of involvement in war crimes…