A PUTIN loyalist MP in Ukraine has been killed, the latest pro-Kremlin politician to die in the war.
Maria Pirogova, 29, was member of the parliament of break-away Donetsk People’s Republic and died in shelling by Ukrainian forces.
The area was initially seized by Vladimir Putin’s forces in 2014 and formally annexed by Russia after a sham referendum.
Pirogova was a music academy graduate was married to Alexander Hereskulov, 30, a military correspondent and volunteer.
She died in a Grad rocket attack on pro-Russian positions in Donetsk, according to reports.
"We confirm her death,” said a source in the people’s militia.
From the start of the war, Ukrainian forces have targeting politicians and officials collaborating with the Russian occupiers.
Shadowy guerrilla fighters, who have been training before the invasion with the help of US and UK special-forces, have ruthlessly eliminated collaborators with the aim of sowing fear in their ranks.
After carrying out attacks they disappear then blend seamlessly into the local population to evade any Russian attempts to capture them and slip back to friendly territory.
They rely on secret stashes of tools of the assassins’ trade - explosives and pistols with silencers, as well as Kalashnikov rifles and grenade launchers.
Four of Putin’s top officials in occupied Ukraine killed in explosions on one day in September, during a surge in assassinations.
An official organising a bogus referendum on joining Russia, Lyudmila Boyko, was killed alongside her husband Oleg Boyko.
In the other attack, General Prosecutor of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic Sergey Gorenk was killed in an explosion in his office alongside his deputy Yekaterina Steglenko.
The assassinations came after a top pro-Putin official in occupied Ukraine was killed in a car bomb as he went to pick up his daughter from nursery school.
Ivan Sushko – who was married with a daughter - was an official in occupied Zaporizhzhia region.
Also killed in a car bomb was Askyar Laishev, who worked for Ukraine's security service before joining the Moscow-backed Luhansk People's Republic as head of intelligence in 2014.
Officers in Putin’s occupying army have also been targeted, including Bardin Artem Igorevich.
The Colonel has been appointed by the Kremlin to oversee the Ukrainian city of Berdyansk and was reportedly killed in an explosion that sent smoke pouring into the sky.
Also killed was spy chief Colonel Aleksey Katerinichev was blasted in a “pinpoint” strike today - just hours before the tyrant gave a speech officially declaring four regions in Ukraine as Russian.
Last month, Putin's puppet leader in occupied Kherson was killed in a mystery "car crash" amid speculation he was killed by Ukraine.
Former YouTuber Kirill Stremousov - reviled for a sick stunt swinging a baby round his head - had urged civilians to flee their homes while pumping out twisted pro-regime propaganda.
Ukraine has also been accused of been behind a car bomb that killed Darya Dugina the daughter pro-Putin propagandist Alexander Dugin.
