Prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported, citing sources who said the blast was caused by an explosive device, Reuters reports. According to local authorities, at least 25 people were injured.

Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion in a St. Petersburg cafePhoto: AP / AP / Profimedia

00:07The number of victims as a result of Sunday’s explosion in a cafe in St. Petersburg has increased to 30 people.

“24 victims were taken to St. Petersburg medical facilities from the scene of the incident. Another six victims sought medical help on their own some time after the incident,” TASS reported with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Health of Russia, according to CNN.

23:07According to Russian state media, citing law enforcement agencies and eyewitness accounts, the explosive device that killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarskyi on Sunday may have been hidden in a statuette given to the blogger. However, Russian authorities have not commented on the reports, and CNN could not independently verify the claim.

Russian state media reports that this statuette, which caused the explosion in the cafe, was brought by a woman. According to RIA, when she entered, she had a figure packed in a box.

10:03 pmOfficials in St. Petersburg on Sunday updated the number of people injured in the cafe blast that killed Vladlen Tatarsky, saying 25 people were injured, 19 of them hospitalized, CNN reported.

“In connection with what happened in the cafe on Vasylivskyi Island, all the emergency and special services of the city are now involved,” said the governor of the city Oleksandr Beglov, referring to the island that occupies a large part of the city center. “We work in coordination with law enforcement agencies. They are trying to establish the circumstances of what happened.”

“Unfortunately, 1 person died. Currently, 25 victims are known. 19 of them are hospitalized. The city’s hospitals provide all the necessary assistance,” Beglov wrote.

Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the most prominent military bloggers, often critical of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Russian military blogger Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarskyi. PHOTO: Not Submitted / WillWest News / Profimedia

He was among hundreds attending a lavish ceremony in the Kremlin last September to announce Russia’s annexation of four partially occupied regions of Ukraine, a move most UN nations condemned as illegal.

This cafe once belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin

A website in St. Petersburg reported that the explosion occurred in a cafe that once belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner’s mercenary company, which is fighting on Russia’s side in Ukraine.

Initially, RIA reported that six more people were injured in the explosion.

There was no indication of who might be responsible.

If Tatarsky had been targeted intentionally, it would have been the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure linked to the war in Ukraine. In August of last year, the Federal Security Service of Russia accused the special services of Ukraine of murdering Daria Dugina, who died after the explosion of the car in which she was traveling.

All people who were in the cafe at the time of the explosion are interviewed by the police

Everyone who was in the cafe during the explosion that killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky is being interrogated by law enforcement officers, according to the state news agency TASS, according to CNN.

Authorities are trying to determine who may have transported the explosive device to the cafe in St. Petersburg before it detonated on Sunday, the state news agency reported.

The St. Petersburg police were notified of the explosion in the cafe at 6:13 p.m. local time (11:13 a.m. Eastern time), TASS reports. Since then, traffic in this area has been blocked.

Russia’s Investigative Commission for St. Petersburg has opened a criminal case, the commission said in a statement on Sunday.

“Today, an unknown explosive device exploded in a cafe in the center of St. Petersburg. According to preliminary data, as a result, a military blogger known as Vladlen Tatarsky was killed, and 19 people were injured of varying degrees of severity,” the report said.

What positions does Tatarsky still take regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine

In 2014, Vladlen Tatarsky fought alongside pro-Russian separatists against Ukrainian nationalists in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, Russian state news agency Vesti reported, CNN reported.

In May 2022, he demanded the trial of the “military genius” responsible for this defeat, referring to the Russian army’s failed attempt to cross the Donets River, a maneuver considered one of Russia’s most significant failures since the start of the war. war in Ukraine, as more than 50 units of armored vehicles were destroyed.

“There must be mobilization, otherwise we will lose the war. To defeat Ukraine, you need 600-800 thousand people,” wrote Vladlen Tatarskyi in his Telegram account to his more than 270 thousand subscribers.

Fominsi also expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Russian troops did not shell Kherson during his visit here after the liberation of the city by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Why are we shedding blood? Why can Zelenskyi safely come to Kherson? Symbolically, it would be great if a Geran (not the drone used by the Russians) landed on his stupid head, but it didn’t happen. why Either we wage war by all means, or nothing will work,” he said in a video message.