Russian military blogger killed in explosion at St. Petersburg cafe

A Russian military blogger was reportedly killed in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg as Russia’s war on Ukraine continues. 

Vladlen Tatarsky, a popular war blogger whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was killed in the explosion that wounded 16 others, according to a report from the Russian state news agency TASS. Reuters reported that 25 were wounded. 

A Russian law enforcement spokesman told TASS that an explosive device “of about a soap bar size was hidden in a figurine that was presented to Tatarsky,” who was determined to be the target of the attack. 

If the blast was an assassination, it would be the second high-profile killing of a prominent supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. The U.S. has said it believes Ukrainian officials authorized a car bomb attack in August that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Telegram it is now investigating the death as a murder.

CNN reports the explosion occurred amid an event hosted by a pro-war Telegram group, “Cyber Front Z.”

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak suggested Ukraine was not behind the latest attack, writing on Twitter that “domestic terrorism” was emerging within Russia.

“Spiders are eating each other in a jar. Question of when domestic terrorism would become an instrument of internal political fight was a matter of time,” Podolyak wrote.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has now entered its 14th month, and casualty counts continue to mount amid Moscow’s strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and civilian targets.

Russian forces are still pounding away at Ukrainian lines across the eastern front, but the intensity of the assault, which just weeks ago had put immense pressure on Kyiv, appears to be dying out.

A U.N. report released last month determined both Russia and Ukraine had committed war crimes during the conflict — and the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes.