One of Russia’s highest-ranking officials in occupied Ukrainian territory has been killed, Russian officials and state news agencies said Wednesday.   

  The Russian-appointed deputy head of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, Kirill Stremusov, has died in a car accident, the regional head’s press secretary said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.   

  Stremusov was killed in an accident on the highway between Kherson and Armiansk in Crimea, Russian state media company Vesti (VGTRK) reported, citing the region’s health minister.  Stremusov was 45 years old, according to Vesti.   

  His death was also announced by the Russian-appointed “head” of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, who wrote in a statement on Telegram: “It is very difficult for me to say that Kirill Stremousov died today.  He died in the area of ​​Kherson, driving in a car that had an accident.”   

  Stremusov, a Ukrainian who quickly sided with the Russian occupation when Kherson fell early in the invasion, had become one of the most vocal and outspoken Russian appointees.   

  As deputy head of the military command of the Kherson region, Stremousov was prominent in organizing and supporting the referendum on Russia’s illegal annexation of Kherson and more recently was the driving force behind the evacuation of civilians from the west bank of Kherson as Ukrainian forces were pushing towards the Dnipro River.   

  On Tuesday, Stremusov said: “Most residents who decided to stay in Kherson are only now beginning to realize the seriousness of the situation and my warnings.”   

  Stremusov often took to Telegram to describe Ukrainian officials and forces as “Nazis” and “fascists”.  But he was also critical of the mistakes of the Russian military.  He had blamed the military failures at Kherson on “incompetent commanders” who had not been held accountable for their mistakes.   

  Earlier on Wednesday, Stremousov had released a video on the situation on the front lines, particularly the fighting around Snihurivska north of the city of Kherson, where there are reports that Ukrainian forces have breached Russian defenses.   

  Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, said Stremousov “was a true patriot of Russia, brave and courageous, in whatever situation he was in contact and considered it his duty to inform the people of the Kherson region of what was happening.  This happened this morning as well.  This is an irreparable loss.”   

  A Ukrainian official expressed skepticism about the reports.  Yuriy Sobolevsky, first deputy head of the Ukrainian Kherson regional council, said on Telegram: “Regarding the information spread by the occupiers and Russian sources about the death of partner Kirill Stremousov in an accident, so far we can neither confirm nor to refute the information.  It could be true or it could be fake.”   

  Stremusov previously had a checkered career as a local politician in Kherson, and was embroiled in many controversies.  He also dabbled in paganism and a peculiar form of yoga.  Video from 2017 showed him swinging his baby daughter around his head by her feet.   

  Stremusov is not the first Russian-backed leader to die under obscure circumstances.  Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of Russian-backed separatists, was killed in a cafe bombing in 2018. Several separatist commanders were also killed in a series of assassinations before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that remains unresolved.   

  Russian and separatist leaders blamed Ukraine for the killings.  Ukrainian officials in turn have claimed that Moscow is rooting out troublesome local leaders.  Several prominent separatists had been rumored to have links to organized crime, and some observers suggested their deaths may also have been the result of organized crime.   

  Kherson has been at the center of intense conflict in recent months, and a battle for control of the city of Kherson, the region’s capital, may be looming.  Ukrainian forces managed to recapture a significant chunk of territory in the region that Russian troops had seized shortly after the invasion began in late February.   

  While Kyiv racked up a series of stunning victories in early October in the region, progress has slowed as Ukrainian forces move closer to the regional capital, the city of Kherson.   

  Reports of Stremusov’s death come as Russian forces have destroyed bridges in occupied parts of Ukraine’s Kherson region west of the Dnipro River, a local Ukrainian official and Russian military analysts reported on Telegram on Wednesday.   

  Serhii Khlan, a member of Ukraine’s Kherson regional council, also said Russian forces appeared to be staging an orderly retreat from some front-line villages to “slow down the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”  CNN cannot independently confirm its claims.