A car bomb injured the Russian nationalist author Zakhar Prilepin and killed one individual in a village east of Moscow on Saturday, Russian authorities stated.
The 47-year-old Prilepin has been a fervent supporter of the Kremlin’s warfare in Ukraine. Since 2014, he has taken half in hostilities alongside pro-Russian separatists in jap Ukraine and has run a volunteer battalion.
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs stated the blast occurred in a village in the western Nizhny Novgorod area, in keeping with Russian information company Tass. It reported that an explosive machine was positioned below the car and that Prilepin’s accidents required him to be hospitalized.
The author’s press secretary stated he was doing nice. “What exactly happened is not clear at the moment,” she informed the Russian media outlet RTVI.
A Crimean partisan group claimed accountability for the blast. Russia has occupied the Crimean Peninsula since illegally annexing it from Ukraine in 2014.
“The Atesh movement has been hunting Prilepin since the beginning of the year,” the group stated on Telegram. “Our predictions always come true, because we not only speak, but also do,” it stated. The Washington Post couldn’t independently confirm its claims.
The Kremlin stated it could not instantly touch upon the incident. “It’s unknown. We must first get information from law enforcement agencies,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed Tass when requested whether or not Ukraine was responsible.
But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed Kyiv’s Western backers. She described the obvious assault because the “direct responsibility of the United States and Britain.”
“Zakhar Prilepin was injured. First and foremost, we wish him a speedy recovery,” she stated on the Russian community REN TV. “What we saw was carried out by the so-called collective West.”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak informed The Washington Post that Kyiv had “nothing to do with the incident” and that there was no “strategic sense” for Ukraine to hold out the assault.
Ukraine’s army intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov declined to remark. “That Zakhar Prilepin is a war criminal — this is an obvious fact,” he stated. “All else we are refraining from commenting on.”
One yr of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine
Portraits of Ukraine: Every Ukrainian’s life has modified since Russia launched its full-scale invasion one yr in the past — in methods each large and small. They have discovered to outlive and assist one another below excessive circumstances, in bomb shelters and hospitals, destroyed residence complexes and ruined marketplaces. Scroll by means of portraits of Ukrainians reflecting on a yr of loss, resilience and worry.
Battle of attrition: Over the previous yr, the warfare has morphed from a multi-front invasion that included Kyiv in the north to a battle of attrition largely concentrated alongside an expanse of territory in the east and south. Follow the 600-mile entrance line between Ukrainian and Russian forces and check out the place the combating has been concentrated.
A yr of dwelling aside: Russia’s invasion, coupled with Ukraine’s martial legislation stopping fighting-age males from leaving the nation, has pressured agonizing selections for thousands and thousands of Ukrainian households about the right way to steadiness security, obligation and love, with once-intertwined lives having change into unrecognizable. Here’s what a prepare station filled with goodbyes seemed like final yr.
Deepening world divides: President Biden has trumpeted the reinvigorated Western alliance solid through the warfare as a “global coalition,” however a more in-depth look suggests the world is way from united on points raised by the Ukraine warfare. Evidence abounds that the hassle to isolate Putin has failed and that sanctions haven’t stopped Russia, because of its oil and gasoline exports.
