Russian investigators say Ukraine was behind the car explosion of writer Zakhar Prilepin, one of Russia’s best-known writers and supporter of President Vladimir Putin. But the Russian Foreign Ministry says that “the responsibility for this act of terrorism” in which Prilepin was injured and another person killed “belongs not only to Ukraine, but also to his Western mentors, mainly the US”.
The explosion occurred around 11 a.m. in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the hometown of Prilepin, one of the main supporters of the Moscow offensive in Ukraine – he even fought alongside pro-Russian separatist forces in 2014. The writer was injured and had to undergo surgery after suffering minor fractures. His assistant was killed in the explosion.
Russian authorities have arrested a suspect who admitted to placing the explosives on the road and detonating them remotely. “The suspect was detained and said during interrogation that he had acted on instructions from the Ukrainian secret services,” the commission responsible for the investigation said in a statement. The suspect was identified as Alexander Permyakov.
This is the third pro-Kremlin figure to be the target of a bomb attack since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Last August, a car bomb exploded on the outskirts of Moscow, killing Darya Dugina, a journalist and daughter of an influential Russian philosopher, Alexander Dugin, who inspired Putin. Last month, an explosion at a café in St. Petersburg killed popular military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. In both cases, authorities accused Ukraine of being responsible for the attacks.
This time, Russian diplomacy is also pointing the finger at the West. “Washington’s lack of conviction after another act of terrorism speaks for itself.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports this in a statement. “The silence of relevant international organizations is unacceptable,” he added, saying the attack on Prilepin was another example of Kiev’s “systematic effort” to “eliminate ideological opponents.”
Ukrainian authorities did not immediately respond to Moscow’s accusations, with the president’s adviser Volodymyr Zelensky writing a cryptic message on Twitter. Mykhaylo Podolyak likened Putin’s regime to a god who “devoured his enemies … and eventually devoured his own allies”, suggesting that Prilepin’s death was due to internal clashes in Russia.
Ballistic missiles in Crimea
Russia has claimed to have shot down a Ukrainian ballistic missile over the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, with no casualties,” Kremlin-appointed governor Sergei Aksionov said.
For its part, the Ukrainian Air Force claimed to have shot down a Russian hypersonic missile over Kiev using the US Patriot defense system – the first time they managed to intercept one of these more modern missiles.
With AFP
Source: DN
