Ukrainian military intelligence reports that Konstantin Nagayko, a Russian commander implicated in the deadly October 2023 strike on Hroza village in Kharkiv Oblast, was severely injured in an explosion at his military base in Russia.
According to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), the incident occurred on 3 January in Shuya, Ivanovo region, where Nagayko serves as a battery commander in the 112th Missile Brigade of the 1st Tank Army of Russia’s Western Military District.
Officials report that Nagayko sustained severe shrapnel wounds to multiple organs, including brain trauma requiring emergency surgery. Sources within his unit indicate his condition is critical with slim chances of survival.
Nagayko, 28, is a graduate of St. Petersburg University of Aerospace Instrumentation and the Mikhailovsky Artillery Military Academy. He has been directly involved in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, particularly in coordinating Iskander ballistic missile strikes on civilian and military targets in Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Most notably, his unit was responsible for the 5 October 2023 missile strike on a café in Hroza village during a memorial service, which killed 59 civilians, including an eight-year-old boy. That attack drew international condemnation and is considered a war crime by Ukrainian authorities.
The Hroza café attack occurred during a memorial service for a deceased soldier. Russian officials claimed the target was chosen because of a supposed “high-ranking Ukrainian nationalist’s” funeral, a claim Ukrainian National Police have categorically denied.
Related:
- Funerals begin for victims of deadly Russian strike in Hroza
- UN field team to investigate deadly missile attack in Ukraine’s Hroza
- Ukrainian brothers accused of coordinating deadly Russian missile attack on a cafe in Hroza
- Russian attack on grocery kills 49 in Kharkiv Oblast (updated)