Moscow blast seriously wounds east Ukrainian separatist

Moscow blast seriously wounds east Ukrainian separatist

A blast in a Moscow luxury residential complex on Monday seriously wounded an east Ukrainian separatist wanted by Kyiv and killed one person, state media reported, in what appeared to be another assassination attempt in the capital.

Moscow blast seriously wounds east Ukrainian separatist
AFP

Russia has been hit by a string of killings and mysterious explosions since launching its full-scale offensive in Ukraine in 2022.

State media said Armen Sarkisian, a former boxing official from east Ukraine who had set up a battalion to fight against Kyiv, was among the wounded.

Russian police said one person died and four others were wounded in an "incident" at the complex in north-west Moscow.

The Kremlin said special services were working at the scene and declined to comment while "information was being clarified."

Russian media intially reported Sarkisian was killed in the blast but later said he survived.

"Sarkisian is hospitalised in a severe condition, his leg will be amputated," the state RIA Novosti news agency quoted a law enforcement source as saying.

It earlier quoted an emergency official as saying the blast was caused by an "explosive device" and that all the wounded were in a serious condition.

Ukraine's SBU security service had in December declared Sarkisian -- which it called a "crime lord from the Donetsk region" -- as a suspect for "recruiting prisoners to fight against Ukraine."

Kyiv has not yet commented on the explosion.

In December, it said it was behind the killing of Russian army general Igor Kirillov in Moscow in its most audacious attack to date.

- Wanted by Kyiv -

Russian media said Sarkisian had in 2022 formed a unit -- named "ArBAT" -- to fight against Ukraine.

According to the SBU, Sarkisian is "close" to Ukraine's ousted ex-president Viktor Yanukovych and has been on a wanted list since 2014, accused of "organising murders" during Kyiv's pro-EU revolution.

The SBU alleged Sarkisian oversaw prisons in the occupied Donetsk region, from which he recruited convicts.

"Efforts are underway to bring the offender to justice for his crimes against Ukraine," the SBU said in December.

Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported that an "explosive device went off when he entered the building with security guards," adding that one of the guards died.

Footage published by TASS showed a seriously damaged lobby hall with debris on the floor.

The red-brick high-rise building was closed off by police and a helicopter was seen arriving at the scene.

Kommersant reported that the unit Sarkisian had formed was made up of "around 500 people", most of whom are ethnic Armenians.

According to Russian media, Sarkisian was born in Armenia but moved to east Ukraine's city of Gorlivka at a young age and also used the pseudonym of Armen "Gorlovsky" -- after the industrial city.

Gorlivka has been under pro-Russian separatist control since 2014.

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