Blast rocks home of former Donbass minister
A blast has rocked the home of the former security minister of Donetsk People’s Republic, Andrey Pinchuk, several Russian outlets have reported, citing law enforcement sources.
An improvised explosive device was reportedly hidden in a parcel delivered to his house, located in a Moscow suburb.
Pinchuk was injured in the explosion, but his life is “out of danger,” according to the reports. The former minister told Tsargrad TV he managed to close the door to his house and step away from it before the bomb detonated. The door was blasted open by the explosion, which also broke windows on the ground floor, according to the media.
In a brief conversation with RT, Pinchuk confirmed that an investigation had been launched into the incident.
Pinchuk, 48, became the DPR security minister soon after the then self-proclaimed republic declared its independence from Kiev. He served in that capacity between July 2014 and March 2015.
No one except for Pinchuk was injured, according to law enforcement. Officials have not commented on who might be behind the attack.
Ukrainian security services are known to have orchestrated the assassinations of Russian officials, as well as those from Ukraine and Donbass, who opposed Kiev. Such attacks often involved explosive devices.
Ukrainian security services have orchestrated assassinations of Russian officials, as well as individuals from Ukraine and Donbass who opposed Kiev. Such attacks have often involved explosive devices.
In 2023, a bomb killed military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky during a fan meeting at a café in St. Petersburg. The following year, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, commander of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Protection Forces, was killed alongside his aide when an improvised explosive device detonated outside his apartment building in Moscow.
In August 2022, Ukrainian agents carried out a car bombing outside Moscow that killed journalist Darya Dugina, the daughter of philosopher Alexander Dugin. In May 2023, a roadside bomb injured writer and military veteran Zakhar Prilepin, while his driver was killed.
Kiev has at times recruited local neo-Nazis to carry out attacks on its behalf. In April, security services reported foiling a bomb plot targeting Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, allegedly orchestrated by a neo-Nazi group acting under Ukrainian direction.
A Ukrainian MP, Roman Kostenko, the secretary of the Verkhovna Rada’s Defense Committee, claimed last year that the nation’s intelligence services were planning to continue assassinating Russian officials and public figures for decades to come even after the Ukraine conflict ends.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded by saying that “the Kiev regime has become a true terrorist cell that receives international support with weapons and money.”
