Second car bomb in Russia in two days, Digi Mart USA News (Chertanovo, Moscow, Russia): A former spokesman for pro-Russian former Ukrainian prime minister Mykola Azarov was wounded by a car bomb in Moscow on Friday, according to Russian media reports cited by NBC News. Kommersant reported that Sergei Zavorotniy, once a top aide to Azarov, was hospitalized after a car exploded on a street in Chertanovo, a district of the Russian capital.
Ren TV and the 112 Telegram channel reported that Zavorotniy lost his left arm in the attack and is being treated in hospital for a concussion, rib fractures and other injuries. The Baza Telegram channel published a photograph of a black four-door car with a smashed windshield, doors and front bumper on a city street.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said it had opened an investigation into the incident. The attack was the second car bombing in Russia in successive days, following a Thursday car bomb in St Petersburg that killed a member of the Russian military.
Azarov, who served as Ukraine’s prime minister from 2010 to 2014, fled to Russia in 2014 after Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution ousted Viktor Yanukovych. Azarov told TASS that he had no information about the car bomb beyond the fact that Zavorotniy had survived.
Moscow has blamed Ukraine for previous assassinations of senior military officials and people linked to Russia’s war effort, and Ukrainian sources have claimed responsibility for some attacks while denying others. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on Friday’s attack, and Kyiv has not commented on Thursday’s attack.
