A car bomb in Moscow injured a former adviser to Ukraine's pro-Putin ex-prime minister Mykola Azarov, Russia's Investigative Committee said, a day after a similar explosion killed a Russian colonel in Saint Petersburg, the BBC reported. Sergei Zavorotny was behind the wheel when the blast happened on Friday morning and was taken to a hospital, investigators said. He had been an aide to Azarov until the prime minister resigned in 2014 and fled to Russia. The attacks come as informal peace talks continue in Dublin, even as strikes by both Russia and Ukraine went on overnight.
"Serhiy Zavorotny, a former adviser to the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, who was driving a car, was injured. He was taken to one of the city hospitals, where he is receiving medical care," the committee said on Telegram. "A set of necessary investigative actions is being carried out." Unconfirmed reports from Russia claimed he had lost his left arm and suffered a brain injury, broken ribs, and an injury to his right leg. On Thursday, a car bomb in the Pushkinsky District of Saint Petersburg killed a member of the Russian military. Russia has described the bombs as the latest in a series of attacks targeting pro-Kremlin figures. The BBC did not independently confirm the unconfirmed medical details.
Overnight, the two sides exchanged attacks. Ukrainian authorities said a hospital had been targeted by Russian bombardment, and that three people, including a 17-year-old boy, were killed in attacks across southern Odesa and Zaporizhzhia. Russia said a Ukrainian strike on an industrial facility in the central Samara region killed four people, and that another four died after drones hit an industrial zone in the southern Volgograd region. A further person died in the Bryansk border region. Ukraine said those were retaliatory attacks after Russia's persistent targeting of its cities.
This week has seen informal peace talks in Dublin at a military airbase. U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff had earlier spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. On Thursday in Dublin, Kushner said Putin was willing to accept European input in the peace process. On Friday, Ireland's Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said that European voice should not be confined to EU member states, paving the way for a UK role. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed the pledge of European involvement. On Thursday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell would join Zelensky, Witkoff, and Kushner in Dublin, but hours later Downing Street said those talks had been delayed. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and about a fifth of the country is now under occupation. The verified developments are a second car bomb, continued strikes, and a still-fluid diplomatic track in Dublin.