Bomb that killed a Russian soldier might have targeted the ‘Butcher of Bucha’
Russian and Ukrainian media and military bloggers said the bomb that killed a soldier in a remote Russian town probably targeted a notorious Russian commander known as the Butcher of Bucha.
One person was killed and several others were injured in a bomb attack in the far eastern Khabarovsk region on Tuesday, Russian officials said.
Russian media and military bloggers reported that the person killed was a soldier with the rank of lieutenant colonel, adding that the attack took place in a closed military barracks.
VChK-OGPU, a well-known Russian military blogger, said the real target was Major General Azatbek Omurbekov, who was involved in some of the worst massacres committed by the Russian military against civilians in Ukraine.
Ömürbekov was in charge of the 64th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, which operated in the Kiev region during the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The unit was named a war criminal by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense due to the bodies of killed civilians and mass graves It was discovered after Russian forces withdrew from the region.
Shortly after the announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the brigade an honorary title.
The entire force, and Omurbekov himself, were later sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and nearly a dozen other allies of Ukraine for their involvement in “gross human rights violations” in Ukraine.
A court in Khabarovsk said on Thursday that three people involved in the bombing and what it called “destabilization of government bodies” had been arrested, one of them in absentia.
Ukraine did not comment on the attack.
If confirmed, Omurbekov would be the latest high-ranking figure in the Russian military and security services to be targeted.
A Russian general who served as deputy head of Russian military intelligence was shot and seriously injured in Moscow in February, while two more people were killed in car bombings in Moscow, one in December and one in April last year. Russian officials pointed the finger at Ukraine. Kyiv did not comment.
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