An underground Ukranian resistance group took credit Saturday for wounding a prominent pro-Kremlin novelist in a car bombing in Russia Saturday.
Zakhar Prilepin, a huge supporter of the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine, was injured when his Audi Q7 blew up in the region of Nizhny Novgorod, about 250 miles east of Moscow, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency and law enforcement officials.
He was taken to a local hospital for treatment, reportedly for leg injuries. His driver was reportedly killed in the blast.
Atesh, a partisan resistance group operating in Crimea and other parts of occupied Ukraine, is taking credit for the assassination attempt.
“The Atesh movement has been hunting for Prilepin since the beginning of the year,” the group said in a Telegram post boasting of the attack. “Zakhar Prilepin was a shitty writer, and as a person he was rubbish.”
It is the third explosion involving prominent pro-Kremlin figures since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Prilepin was traveling back to Moscow on Saturday from Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions and stopped in the Nizhny Novgorod region for a meal, according to Russian news outlet RBC.
“There was a feeling that sooner or later it would be blown up,” the post by Atesh said. “And it came true – he was driving his trump card Audi Q7 to relatives in Nizhny Novgorod. But he was not driving by himself, but with a surprise on the bottom of the car. The surprise worked. Zakhar is in the hospital. Our predictions always come true, because we not only speak, but also do.”
Police are treating the incident as a terrorist attack and launched a criminal probe. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk said a suspect was detained.
In 2020, Prilepin founded the For the Truth political party, which Russian media reported was backed by the Kremlin. A year later, it merged with the nationalist A Just Russia party that has seats in the parliament.
Sergei Mironov, who heads the party, called the bombing “a terrorist act” and blamed Ukraine for it.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova echoed Mironov’s sentiment, adding that the responsibility also lies with the U.S. and NATO.
“Washington and NATO have nursed yet another international terrorist cell — the Kyiv regime,” Zakharova wrote. “Direct responsibility of the U.S. and Britain. We’re praying for Zakhar.”
The deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, former President Dmitry Medvedev, put the blame on “Nazi extremists” in a telegram he sent to Prilepin.
Ukrainian officials haven’t commented on the incident.