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HUNTED DOWN
Putin’s Black Sea captain Stanislav Rzhitsky shot dead by assassin ‘using Strava app to track his route’ on morning run
A RUSSIAN naval captain was shot dead after a hitman tracked him down using a popular fitness app, investigators believe.
Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was jogging through the Russian city of Krasnodar when he was gunned down at around 6am on Monday.
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Russian investigators, who pointed the finger at Ukraine, believe Rzhitsky was traced by an assassin using a jogging app.
Rzhitsky left his Strava page open to public view and it showed a route he frequently took, which authorities believe the gunman studied.
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.
Rzhitsky was struck in the back and chest, with seven bullets fired from a Makarov pistol. He died at the scene.
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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.
He said: "We know that the roots of what happened yesterday in the Russian Federation must be sought within Russia itself, where internal protest against the war in Ukraine is growing."
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It was suggested the attack was ordered from Ukraine in revenge for an attack on the city of Vinnytsia, killing 27, one year ago.
Rzhitsky was suspected of being the captain of the submarine at the moment it unleashed the Kalibr missile hell on Vinnytsia.
But while he was formerly the sub's captain, by July 14, 2022 - the date of the missile bombardment - he had passed on its command to Captain Anatoly Varochkin.
The 56-year-old is understood to have been in charge the day submarine unleashed the Kalibr missile hell on Vinnytsia from the Black Sea.
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.
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.
The Russian Investigative Committee said a murder probe has been launched in connection with Rzhitsky's death.
Detectives are said to be working to “establish all the circumstances of the incident, as well as the person who committed the crime and his motives”.
Rzhitsky was known to have unleashed cruise missiles at ISIS during earlier Russian operations in Syria.
Varochkin, meanwhile, is now Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
It comes as 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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