An explosion tore through a cafe in Russia’s second-largest city on Sunday, killing a prominent military blogger who supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s Interior Ministry said more than a dozen people were wounded.

Russian news reports said blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed and 16 people were hurt in the explosion at the Street Food Bar No. 1 cafe in St. Petersburg. The reports did not mention any claim of responsibility or provide details beyond saying that a cafe visitor carried an “explosive device.”

The Interior Ministry said everyone at the cafe at the time of the blast was being “checked for involvement.”

Russian media and military bloggers said Tatarsky was meeting with members of the public and that a woman presented him with a box containing a statuette that apparently exploded. A Russian group that organized the event said it had taken security precautions, but added that “regrettably, they proved insufficient.”

Since the fighting in Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022, various fires and explosions have occurred in Russia without any clear connection to the conflict.

Tatarsky had filed regular reports from Ukraine as well as the Kremlin. Tatarsky is the pen name for Maxim Fomin, who had accumulated more than 560,000 followers on his Telegram messaging app channel. He was known for his blustery pronouncements and ardent pro-war rhetoric.

After the Kremlin’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine last year, Tatarsky posted a video in which he vowed: “That’s it. We’ll defeat everybody, kill everybody, rob everybody we need to. It will all be the way we like it. God be with you.”

Many countries have condemned the annexation as illegal.


Source link

You May Also Like

In Israel, U.S. Aide Denies Talk of a Rift Over Gaza War

Days after President Biden said Israel was losing support for its military…

What genocide? Volkswagen’s morally expensive bet on China

Press play to listen to this article Voiced by artificial intelligence. BERLIN…

Ron DeSantis Bombs As Dozens Show Up For New York Event

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is supposed to be the GOP’s hope to…

Is There No Shame Anymore?

Sam Bankman-Fried’s mere ’embarrassment’ at the collapse of FTX is a symptom…