(HRNW) – Russia’s top security agency accused a Ukrainian man Thursday of involvement in a bombing that killed a well-known Russian military blogger at a St. Petersburg cafe.
Vladlen Tatarsky, 40, an ardent supporter of the war in Ukraine who filed regular reports on the fighting from the front lines, was killed on April 2 as he led a discussion at a riverside cafe in the historic heart of Russia’s second-largest city. The bombing injured 50 other people.
A 26-year-old St. Petersburg resident, Darya Trepova, who was seen on video presenting Tatarsky with a statuette moments before the blast, was quickly arrested. According to Russian media reports, Trepova told investigators she was asked to deliver the statuette but didn’t know what was inside it.
Russian authorities described the bombing as an act of terrorism and blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for orchestrating it.
Ukrainian authorities have not directly responded to the accusation, but an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the bombing was part of Russia’s internal turmoil.