DONETSK: Russian former deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin said Thursday he required surgery after being hurt in a blast in Russian-occupied Ukraine, the latest in a series of attacks on pro-Moscow officials.
Earlier, authorities in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region said a local official had been killed on Thursday in a car bomb attack.
Rogozin, also former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, was hurt on Wednesday when Ukrainian shells hit the hotel where he was staying in Donetsk, a town controlled by Russian proxies since 2014.
“I have wounds – a piece of metal 8mm by 6mm that entered above the right shoulder blade,” Rogozin said on Telegram. “There will have to be an operation. Several people close to me were also hit.”
Tass news agency quoted a Rogozin aide as saying he would be transported to Moscow as local doctors had decided an operation was too risky.
Officials said the shells hit the hotel on Wednesday before a meeting organised by Rogozin, who was advising on security in the region. Ukrainian media reports said two people were killed.
In Kherson, local officials blamed “Ukrainian terrorists” for the attack that killed local official Andrei Shtepa.
There was no immediate comment on either incident from Ukrainian authorities.
Ukrainian media reports referred to Shtepa as “an occupier” and as someone who had collaborated with Russian forces.
Shtepa is the latest in a number of Russian-installed officials to die in murky circumstances.
In November, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-installed local administration in Kherson, died in a car crash and other officials have been hurt or killed in bomb blasts.
Kyiv vows to retake by force all territory seized by Russian troops since they invaded on Feb 24. - Reuters
