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FOUR of Vladimir Putin’s top officials in occupied Ukraine have been killed in explosions in the latest blow to the Russian tyrant.

In one attack, an official organising a bogus referendum on joining Russia was killed alongside her husband.

Lyudmila Boyko, an official organising a bogus referendum on joining Russia, was killed
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Lyudmila Boyko, an official organising a bogus referendum on joining Russia, was killedCredit: East2West
Oleg Boyko, deputy head of local communal services, was killed alongside his wife
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Oleg Boyko, deputy head of local communal services, was killed alongside his wifeCredit: East2West
Smoke coming from Sergey Gorenk's office after he was assassinated
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Smoke coming from Sergey Gorenk's office after he was assassinatedCredit: East2West

Lyudmila Boyko headed the election commission in the Zaporizhzhia region, and had been preparing to go along with Kremlin plans for a poll.

She died alongside her husband, Oleg Boyko, 46, who was also a senior local official and they were killed near their garage.

Hours earlier, General Prosecutor of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic Sergey Gorenk, 40, was killed in an explosion in his office alongside his 44-year-old deputy Yekaterina Steglenko.

Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Russian Investigative Committee, accused what it called the “criminal” government in Kyiv for the “monstrous crime”.

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The Putin ally added that a criminal case has been opened into the two killings.

Recent weeks have seen an upsurge in targeted assassinations of officials who have been shot, blown up and poisoned for working with the hated invaders.

A top pro-Putin official in occupied Ukraine was killed in a car bomb as he went to pick up his daughter from nursery school.

Ivan Sushko, 40 was killed when an explosion ripped apart his car, which was captured on CCTV.

Sushko – who was married with a daughter - was an official in occupied Zaporizhzhia region

Askyar Laishev, who worked for Ukraine's secret service before swapping sides in 2014, was wiped out in a car bomb blast in Luhansk earlier this month.

Assassins are also picking off Putin allies in daring missions on Russian territory.

Pro-Putin local official Volodymyr Saldo is in hospital in Moscow after being poisoned while former deputy head of the Kremlin.

And Vyacheslav Volodin, 58, narrowly escaped death when Ukrainian missiles hit a Donetsk office he was in just minutes after he left.

Deputy prosecutor Yekaterina Steglenko
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Deputy prosecutor Yekaterina SteglenkoCredit: East2West
Also killed was prosecutor Sergey Gorenk
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Also killed was prosecutor Sergey GorenkCredit: East2West

Shadowy guerrilla fighters, who have been training before the invasion with the help of US and UK special forces, have ruthlessly eliminated collaborators with the aim of sowing fear in their ranks.

After carrying out attacks they disappear then blend seamlessly into the local population to evade any Russian attempts to capture them and slip back to friendly territory.

They rely on secret stashes of tools of the assassins’ trade - explosives and pistols with silencers, as well as Kalashnikov rifles and grenade launchers.

“The goal is to show the occupiers that they are not at home, that they should not settle in, that they should not sleep comfortably,” one guerrilla told the .

Other recent assassinations there include that of Putin stooge Vitaly Gura, an official in the Kherson region, who was shot dead in his office.

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Dmitry Savluchenko, head of the families, youth, and sports department of the Kherson military-civilian administration, was killed in a bomb.

The explosion had burned two cars and shattered the windows of a nearby four-storey house.

Ivan Sushko was known to have pro-Russian views
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Ivan Sushko was known to have pro-Russian viewsCredit: Twitter
The aftermath of the blast that killed Sushko
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The aftermath of the blast that killed Sushko
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