#Putin party official killed in Kherson car bomb

Several other pro-Russia policemen and officials have been killed, and Mr Saldo, the governor, also survived being poisoned.

A Ukrainian partisan group called Atesh claimed responsibility for the assassination of Mr Malov on Saturday.

“The liquidation of the collaborators who went to serve the occupiers continues and will only intensify,” it said.

Atesh means ‘fire’ in Crimean Tatar. Since it was set up in September last year, it has become one of the most effective partisan groups working in occupied Crimea and occupied Kherson.

Tatars have been a focus of resistance to the Kremlin since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 because of their deep-rooted hatred of Moscow. In 1944, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin deported the entire Crimean Tatar population to Central Asia.

The Kremlin has not commented on the assassination of Mr Malov and instead broadcast a video of Putin, who turned 71 on Saturday, meeting Kassym Jomart Tokayev, the president of Kazakhstan, and Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the president of Uzbekistan, in Moscow.

In some of the videos, Putin was walking with a slight limp.