A former Russian deputy prime minister and a Kremlin-backed official were wounded when Ukrainian forces shelled a hotel and restaurant Wednesday in the occupied city of Donetsk.
Dmitry Rogozin, the former Russian deputy prime minister who is currently leading a volunteer force that provides support to pro-Kremlin forces in Ukraine, was having a business lunch with some associates when the restaurant came under fire from high-precision weapons.
Rogozin was injured in the shoulder blade in the attack, which is believed to have been carried out by a Caesar 155-millimeter self-propelled howitzer artillery system that was supplied to Ukrainian forces by France.
The 59-year-old Putin crony also allegedly sustained shrapnel wounds to the head, buttocks and left hip, the news outlet Baza reported on its Telegram channel.
He was transported to a hospital in the Russian city of Rostov-na-donu and is expected to survive.
The attack on the Shesh-Besh restaurant killed at least one person and also injured Vitaly Khotsenko, the head of government of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, his press secretary told Russian news agencies.
Photos of the shelling’s grisly aftermath showed a blood-soaked carpet, bloodstains on white tablecloths and a large chunk of wall missing in the garishly decorated dining room.
Donetsk is in the industrial Donbas region, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the 10-month war. The city has been in the hands of pro-Moscow leaders since 2014.
Writing on his own Telegram channel Thursday, Rogozin suggested the Ukrainian forces had acted on a tip.
“We have been staying at this hotel the last several months, and in the past eight years the enemy had never shelled this place,” he wrote. “Someone leaked information…”
The staunch Putin ally, known for his social media clashes with Elon Musk, used to head Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, but was replaced in July.
Meanwhile, there was more bad news for Putin’s forces Thursday, when Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, caught fire while undergoing repairs.
Russian state media Tass and RIA Novosti reported that the flagship of the Russian navy suffered a “minor” fire” at a shipyard in the Arctic port of Murmanks.
Aleksey Rakhmanov, head of the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation which is overseeing a major refit of the carrier, said the blaze was quickly extinguished and caused no casualties.
Delays and accidents have plagued the Admiral Kuznetsov’s ongoing overhaul, which began in 2017 and was initially set to conclude last year.
At least one person was killed and 12 others were injured after a fire broke out in December 2019. The previous year, a crane crashed onto its deck after a floating dock holding it began to sink, causing damage.
Rakhmanov told Russian media in June that he expected the Admiral Kuznetsov to return to service in early 2024, almost three years behind schedule.
With Post wires
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