A RUSSIAN naval captain suspected of being behind a deadly missile strike in Ukraine has been killed.
Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, is believed to have been followed by an assassin who gunned him down as he jogged through the Russian city of Krasnodar.
Rzhitsky commanded a submarine that allegedly fired at the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, killing 27, one year ago.
Among the victims of the submarine missile bombardment was tragic four-year-old Liza Dmitrieva.
She was in a pushchair and with her mother Irina when they were brutally hit.
Liza tragically died, while Irina suffered horrific injuries.
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Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska knew little Liza, one of the three children brutally killed in the Russian strike, from the filming of an earlier Christmas video.
Russian investigators believe Rzhitsky’s route was tracked by a jogging app he used, and that the timing of the killing was linked to the upcoming first anniversary of the Kalibr mayhem in Vinnytsia.
The ex-captain – who had recently worked as a mobilisation official for Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine – was shot four times as he ran near the Olympus Arena in Krasnodar city.
It's understood he was hit in the back and chest and died at the scene, with two 9-mm bullets found in his body.
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Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence confirmed Rzytskyi had been killed- fuelling suspicion of a revenge attack.
In a post on Telegram, it said: "Due to heavy rain, the park was deserted, so there are no witnesses who could provide details or identify the attacker."
But the agency's chief Kyrylo Budanov insisted Ukraine had no involvement in the killing.
Rzhitsky's watch and headphones were located at the scene, indicating robbery was not the motive, according to news outlet Mash.
The gunman shot Rzhitsky in a place without CCTV cameras -but Russian law enforcement issued a picture of a man they say is a suspect in the killing.
They believe it was ordered as a revenge attack from Ukraine.
Investigators are searching for “a middle-aged man in a blue cap”, reported Baza media outlet.
The Russian Investigative Committee said a murder probe ahs been launched, with detectives working to “establish all the circumstances of the incident, as well as the person who committed the crime and his motives”.
Rzhitsky was suspected of being the captain of the Krasnodar submarine at the moment it unleashed the Kalibr missile hell on Vinnytsia from the Black Sea.
The ex-mayor of Krasnodar Evgeny Pervyshov confirmed: “I knew him as the commander of the Krasnodar submarine.
“He was a true patriot, a good man and a loving father.”
It remains unclear if he was still captain of the submarine in July 2022 when Vinnytsia was hit, but he is known to have unleashed cruise missiles at ISIS during earlier Russian operations in Syria.
Meanwhile, Putin is reported to have lost another general in a strike near Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov.
Lieutenant-General Oleg Tsokov had been sanctioned by Britain and the EU for his role in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
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A Ukrainian official said today that the 51-year-old commander, a married father-of-two, had been “liquidated” by Kyiv's armed forces without saying how he was killed.
He is understood to have died in Berdiansk, a strategically important port on the Sea of Azov, which has been pummeled in recent weeks by the Ukrainians deploying UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles which have a 155-mile range.
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