Car Explosion in Southern Ukraine Kills One

A car bomb exploded in the town of Mykhailivka in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, killing at least one person on Friday night. The attack is evidence of the war’s breadth beyond the front lines, as Ukrainian partisans try to undermine their occupiers.

The targeted vehicle was carrying “four supporters of the Kremlin,” according to Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor-in-exile of the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, around 30 miles south, on the Telegram messaging app.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian occupation official, affirmed that the car bomb killed a “local businessman” named Sergei Didovoduk and injured two others.

According to analysts and western officials, the Ukrainian fighters are planning a counteroffensive in southern Ukraine to separate the land routes linking Russia to Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow illegally in 2014. Kyiv’s troops are getting ready for this anticipated event.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine commented in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Saturday that “We are ready.” The upcoming counteroffensive is crucial, particularly after Russia’s capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Meanwhile, in occupied areas like the one on Friday night, partisan attacks have become a constant as Ukrainian insurgents concentrate on the Russian military and so-called Russian accomplices.

According to unverified footage of the aftermath of the attack on social media, Mr. Didovoduk died in a Soviet-made Niva, an unassuming sports utility vehicle. Ukrainian officials have suggested that the cafe run by Mr. Didovoduk was frequented by Russian soldiers and occupation officials.

The Hetman cafe, which Mr. Didovoduk owned, is named after the customary title of the head of the Cossack state that existed in Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries and played a major role in the foundation of modern Ukraine.

According to Vladimir Rogov, the slain businessman, Mr. Didovoduk, was registered to run in local elections for Russia’s governing party. The Kremlin has been pushing forward with plans to hold local elections in September in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed last year in an effort to legitimize the moves despite the constantly changing frontiers of the territory under Russian control.

The occupation has been accused by Ukraine of staging sham elections in the occupied regions.

The legality of partisan attacks under the internationally recognized law of war, including whether partisans are regarded as combatants, is called into question by the killing of Mr. Didovoduk. Ukrainian freedom fighters say they are civilians and the legal basis for their activity is supervised under Ukrainian law, not the laws of war that forbid a soldier from targeting a civilian official. However, under international laws, civilians become combatants when they engage in hostilities.