Car bomb in Russia kills ex-prison official accused by Ukraine of torturing POWs
A bomb planted under a car's chassis killed Roman Syromyatnikov in Russia's Tula region, a former penal colony employee Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office accused of torturing Ukrainian POWs in 2022.
A bomb destroyed a car on October 2 in Novomoskovsk, in Russia's Tula region, belonging to a participant in Russia's war against Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian monitoring Telegram channel Exilenova+.
The device had reportedly been planted beneath the vehicle's chassis, citing data from the anonymous Russian Telegram channel VChK-OGPU. The driver who died was identified as Roman Syromyatnikov, and the local outlet Novomoskovsk Segodnya confirmed the death of a person by that name.
During the 2010s, Syromyatnikov worked at facilities run by Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) in the Tula region. He signed a contract with Russia's Defense Ministry in 2023 and returned to the Tula region for medical treatment in late 2024, according to the independent investigative outlet iStories, which cited leaked data.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has accused Syromyatnikov, an employee of Penal Colony No. 1 in the Tula region, of torturing and beating Ukrainian prisoners of war held there in 2022.
Syromyatnikov had reportedly said that before departing for the war, he worked as a basic life-safety instructor at a college in Novomoskovsk from at least 2021. iStories said it could not independently confirm that he had worked within the FSIN system in 2022.
