May 6 (Reuters) – Prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepininjured in the car blast that killed his driver on Saturday, investigators said the detained suspect admitted to acting on behalf of Ukraine.
The attack came three days after the Kremlin said Ukraine had attempted to attack the Kremlin with drones, but Ukraine denied having anything to do with the attack.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine and its Western supporters, particularly the United States, of the recent attack on the writer, who is an ardent supporter of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Ukrainian security services, in their standard response, have refused to confirm or deny any involvement. A senior Ukrainian official accused Russia of orchestrating the incident.
Russia’s State Commission of Inquiry said an Audi Q7 in Prilepin was blown up in a village in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Moscow, and is treating it as a terrorist act. Prilepin was taken to hospital.
The committee released a photo showing the white vehicle overturned on the tracks next to the forest, with a deep crater next to it and metal fragments scattered nearby.
The commission later issued a statement that investigators were interrogating a suspect identified as Alexander Permyakov.
“The suspect was taken into custody and during the course of his interrogation provided testimony that he acted in accordance with the instructions of the Ukrainian special services,” said a statement read by a uniformed woman.
Nizhny Novgorod governor Gleb Nikitin said in a telegram that doctors had successfully operated on Prilepin and are now under sedation to help him recover.
“This and other acts of terrorism are not only the responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities, but also their Western backer, the United States,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.
It said Washington’s failure to condemn this and other attacks was “showing off” for the U.S. government.
The state news agency TASS, citing security sources, said the suspect was “from Ukraine” and had a previous conviction for violent robbery.
[1/4] A damaged white Audi Q7 car lies on railroad tracks next to a forest after Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin was allegedly injured in a bomb attack in a village in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia, May 6, 2023 situation is shown.Reuters/Anastasia Makarycheva
The Ukrainian SBU Security Service issued a standard response refusing to confirm or deny any involvement in the bombing.
Mikhail Podlyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said he believed Russian authorities had staged the attack.
“Everyone understands that this is all a performance,” Podoljak told Ukrainian television. “This is a staging, and the Kremlin bombing is aimed at a domestic audience.”
The novelist was the third prominent war supporter to be bombed since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Russia blames Ukraine for journalist’s death Darya Dugina and war blogger Vladren Tatarsky Kiev has denied any involvement.
Ukrainian news site UNIAN surveyed its readers online, following Dugina, Tatarsky and Prilepin in the “Russian scum propaganda hall of fame”.
Officials from the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The UK Foreign Office was not immediately available for comment.
Moscow says Ukraine is acting on behalf of the West
It’s the second time this week that Moscow has accused Ukraine of carrying out terrorist attacks on behalf of the West, a move the Russian government seems to be pushing with increasing urgency, but Kiev and Washington are unsubstantiated. rejected as such.
On Wednesday, Russia accused Ukraine try to kill A drone attack on the Kremlin at night by President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine also denied it, and the White House said accusations of Washington’s involvement were “lies.”
Prilepin frequently speaks out in support of the Ukraine war on social media and has more than 300,000 followers on Telegram, his own website and YouTube channel.
He fought for Russian proxy forces in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine before last year’s invasion, where he led a military unit, and in a 2019 YouTube interview, his unit “killed a lot of people.” was proud of
“These people are dead, they are buried, … there are many of them,” he said. What we did there was a total mess…not a single field commander had the results I did.”
Reported by Reuters Edited by Peter Graf
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