Ivanov, editor-in-chief of the Sevastopol local daily The Glory of Sevastopol, was fatally injured when a bomb, triggered by remote control, exploded in a garbage can outside his home on April 14. He was taken to a local hospital where he underwent three operations and had his legs amputated. He died four days after the explosion.
Ivanov was an ethnic Russian, and his paper’s editorial line supported greater autonomy for the predominantly Russian population of Crimea. Shortly before his death, Ivanov had begun a campaign in his newspaper denouncing the Crimean mafia and protesting the construction of an oil refinery by a Ukrainian-Swedish company. His newspaper had also recently published several articles supporting the creation of a free trade zone in Sevastopol, a plan that was expected to strengthen Crimean autonomy.