A former Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) officer, Vasyl Prozorov, was injured when an explosive device detonated in his car in Moscow, according to Russian media.
The explosion took place on the morning of April 12, presumably after the driver started the engine of the Toyota Land Cruiser SUV. Local media reported that Prozorov was hospitalised with leg injuries. Several cars parked nearby were also damaged by fragments.
Vasyl Prozorov is a former Lieutenant Colonel of the Security Service of Ukraine. In March 2019, he told a press conference in Moscow that he had collaborated with Russia “for ideological reasons” from April 2014 until his resignation in 2018. At that time, Prozorov also made a number of controversial statements, for example, blaming the Ukrainian authorities for the crash of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane near Donetsk in 2014.
The SSU claimed that it dismissed Prozorov “for professional non-compliance”, calling him a traitor and his words a lie.
The Russian Investigative Committee launched an enquiry into the car bombing case. Earlier, the committee reported that money channelled through the Ukrainian oil and gas company Burisma Holdings over the past few years was used to finance terrorist acts on the territory of Russia and abroad. The committee’s spokesperson, Svetlana Petrenko, reported that the funds routed through Burisma Holdings financed activities aimed at eliminating high-ranking politicians and public figures, as well as at causing economic damage.
It was established that funds received through commercial organisations, in particular the oil and gas company Burisma Holdings, operating in Ukraine, had been used to carry out terrorist acts in the Russian Federation over recent years.
In recent times, there has been an increase in terrorist and other harmful activities in Russia and on its borders. During the presidential election period, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) conducted so-called Limited Military Operation in the Belgorod and Kursk border regions between March 12 and 21, 2024. The group attempted to destabilise the situation in the country and prevent the holding of elections in the regions bordering Ukraine. Subsequently, the RVC reported that it had ceased active operations in Russia.
On 6 March, Ukrainian media reported that an employee of the election commission in the Russia-controlled city of Berdyansk was killed as a result of an explosion of a mined car.
Svitlana Samoilenko who served as the Russian-appointed deputy mayor of the city in the Zaporizhzhia region was killed when an improvised explosive device planted under her car exploded.
On March 22, a terrorist attack took place in Crocus City Hall, the Moscow region. The attack killed at least 145 people and injured 551, according to Russian media. The concert hall building has been almost completely destroyed as a result of explosions and fire. Russia blamed Ukraine for the terrorist attack, with President Vladimir Putin promising that “the perpetrators of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall and all links and chains of beneficiaries of the tragedy will be identified.”
In early April, senior Ukrainian military intelligence officials revealed that they were preparing a third attack on the 12-mile-long Kerch Bridge, which connected the Crimean Peninsula to Russia. It would be the third attempt after two failed ones, with officials stating that destruction would be “inevitable”, according to The Guardian.
