A car explosion in Moscow on Friday morning wounded Sergei Zavorotny, a former adviser to Ukraine's one-time pro-Kremlin prime minister Mykola Azarov, according to Russia's Investigative Committee. The blast ripped through the vehicle while Zavorotny was at the wheel, and he was rushed to a city hospital for emergency treatment.
The attack came barely 24 hours after a similar bombing in Saint Petersburg killed a Russian military colonel, heightening fears of a widening campaign of targeted violence inside Russia. Investigators said they have opened a criminal probe and will commission medical and explosives examinations to determine how the device was detonated.
Russian media outlets, citing unconfirmed accounts, reported that Zavorotny lost his left arm and sustained a brain injury, broken ribs and a fractured right leg. There has been no independent verification of those claims.
A Pattern of Targeted Attacks
Zavorotny served as an aide to Azarov until the prime minister stepped down in 2014 and fled to Russia amid the upheaval that ousted Viktor Yanukovych. Moscow officials have portrayed the twin bombings as the latest in a string of assaults aimed at figures seen as loyal to the Kremlin, though no group has claimed responsibility.
The explosions underscore how the war's violence is increasingly spilling beyond the front lines and into Russian cities, even as diplomats scramble to find a negotiated exit.
Diplomacy in Dublin
The bombings unfolded against the backdrop of informal peace talks at a military airbase in Dublin, where US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff joined discussions after earlier meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Kushner indicated that Putin was open to European involvement in the peace process.
Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin said on Friday that Europe's voice should not be limited to EU member states alone, leaving the door open for Britain to play a part. Speaking ahead of an informal EU Council meeting, he said the talks would examine both the substance and the character of the peace Europe hopes to secure, as well as who should speak for the continent at the table.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the commitment to European participation. Hopes for a breakthrough remain fragile, however, after London announced that a planned appearance by UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell had been delayed.
Fighting Rages Overnight
Even as negotiators talked, both sides traded blows. Ukrainian authorities said a hospital was struck by Russian bombardment and that three people, including a 17-year-old boy, were killed in attacks across southern Odesa and Zaporizhzhia. Russia, in turn, reported that a Ukrainian strike on an industrial site in the Samara region killed four people, while drone attacks on an industrial zone in Volgograd killed another four. One more person died in the Bryansk border region.
Kyiv describes such strikes as retaliation for Russia's relentless targeting of its cities. More than three years after the full-scale invasion began, roughly a fifth of Ukraine remains under occupation, and the search for a durable peace continues to falter despite intensive diplomacy.
