Published: Less than 40 min ago
Pro-Putin writer Zakhar Prilepin was injured when his car “exploded”.
Russia claims it was an assassination attempt ordered by Ukrainian agents.
– We will continue to kill Russians anywhere in the world until Ukraine wins, says spy chief Kyrlo Budanov about attacks on foreign soil.
It is the latest in a string of mysterious attacks that have hit people in Russia and on occupied territory in Ukraine since the war began.
Zakhar Prilepin, one of Russia’s most famous writers, is said to have been behind the wheel on Saturday when the car he was traveling in suddenly exploded and overturned.
Pointing out Ukraine
The author is said to have been taken to hospital with injuries to his legs. A passenger in the car is said to have been killed.
Prilepin himself writes on Telegram on Sunday evening that the explosion occurred at the right front wheel where the passenger was sitting.
Russian security services stated on Sunday that they had arrested a suspect and pointed out Ukraine as the client of the “assassination attempt”.
– During questioning, the suspect admitted that he acted on instructions from Ukrainian agents, they say in a statement.
The public prosecutor’s office has published pictures of an overturned car that it says is the vehicle in question.
News agency Tass states that the theory is that mines were placed along the author’s route.
“Only one detonated,” writes Prielpin on Telegram.
The Home Office has released video footage of the designated car bomber being shown in handcuffs, writes The Moscow Times.
Struggle against “non-patriots”
Prilepin is best known for his novels inspired by his time in the Russian army in Chechnya, the newspaper said.
He has spent a lot of time with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine since the conflict started in 2014 and is a staunch supporter of the war.
After the invasion last year, Prilepin was one of the pro-Putin profiles who launched “a battle against the cultural elite’s opposition to the state”, writes The Moscow Times.
The profiles demanded that “unpatriotic” cultural figures resign from their posts.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak suggests in a post on social media that the suspected car bomb was carried out by Russian opposition forces.
Decommissioned bunker by the river
He describes Putin’s regime as a god that “devours its enemies but ends up devouring itself”.
But at the same time during the weekend Yahoo News published an interview made a couple of weeks ago with Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrlo Budanov.
The site met him “behind a large wooden desk in a bunker by the Dnieper River with dim lighting where classical music was played from invisible speakers.”
In the days before the interview, the Kremlin announced that Budanov had been detained in his absence on suspicion of being behind terrorist acts against the Russian people.
– What they call terrorism, I call liberation, says the spy chief to Yahoo News.
“Can kill anywhere”
He was asked about the attacks on Russians that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine, specifically the car bomb that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent nationalist, last August.
– Don’t continue on that subject. The only thing I intend to say about it is that we have killed Russians and we will continue to kill Russians anywhere in the world until Ukraine wins, says Budanov.
The quote was quickly picked up by the Russian regime.
The Russian state-controlled news agency Tass writes on Sunday that the Kremlin links the statements to the White House and President Biden.
Accusing Biden
The US is now accused of supporting terrorism due to siding with Ukraine in the Russian invasion.
– This is a direct blow to the White House. Kiev now recognizes that Biden’s government is behind terrorism, says Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to Tass.