Russia says Ukraine poisoned governors of two annexed Ukrainian provinces

(Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday that Ukraine poisoned the Moscow-installed governors of Ukraine's Kherson and Luhansk regions, though both were still alive.

In a briefing published online, the ministry said Ukraine poisoned Moscow-appointed Luhansk governor Leonid Pasechnik in December 2023, and Kherson head Vladimir Saldo in August 2022.

Kherson and Luhansk regions were among four Ukrainian provinces that Russia declared it had annexed in September 2022, even though it did not fully control any of them.

The briefing said that on Dec. 5 Pasechnik, a former officer in Ukraine's SBU security service turned pro-Russia separatist, "received severe poisoning with phenolic compounds". It gave no information about the current state of his health.

It said that Saldo, a former mayor of Kherson city and pro-Russian lawmaker in Ukraine's parliament, had been hospitalised on Aug. 9, 2022, with symptoms of poisoning.

Russian-installed authorities in Kherson said in August 2022 that Saldo had fallen sick, but did not say that he had been poisoned. Saldo has since returned to public prominence in the Russian-controlled part of Kherson region.

Ukraine has staged a string of attacks against Russian-installed officials in Moscow-held parts of the country since tens of thousands of Russian troops entered the country in February 2022.

Several targets have been killed and more wounded in bombings and shootings that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine.

(Reporting by Felix Light; Editing by Mark Potter)