Photo: SHOT Telegram channel

A car explosion in Moscow on Friday is reported to have injured a former Ukrainian intelligence official who defected to Russia.

State news agency RIA Novosti has confirmed that Vasily Prozorov, a former officer of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), was the owner of the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado that had exploded in northern Moscow.

Prozorov moved to Russia after he left the SBU in 2018. At a press conference in 2019, he admitted that he had collaborated with Russian authorities while employed at the SBU and accused Ukrainian authorities of downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.

According to Meduza, the SBU stated that it had fired Prozorov for “professional misconduct”, calling him “a traitor and a liar”.

Prozorov was inside the car when it exploded and had been hospitalised with leg injuries, a Telegram news channel reported. The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal investigation into the incident, treating it as an assassination attempt.