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MOSCOW: A car bombing on Friday in Moscow injured an adviser to Ukraine\u2019s former prime minister in the second such attack in as many days and part of a series linked to the conflict with Russia\u2019s neighbor.<\/p>\n
The explosion struck a car driven by Sergei Zavorotnyi, who previously worked as an adviser to former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, according to Russia\u2019s Investigative Committee. Zavorotnyi was hospitalized with injuries, the committee added.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t identify possible suspects pending a criminal inquiry.<\/p>\n
Azarov served as prime minister under Ukraine\u2019s Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych, who was forced from office by protesters and fled to Russia in February 2014. Azarov also lives in Russia.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, a military serviceman was killed in St. Petersburg by a bomb in his vehicle, according to the Investigative Committee. It didn\u2019t identify the victim or say who could be behind the bombing.<\/p>\n
The Fontanka news outlet said the victim was a colonel and a bomb in his car went off as he was driving. It claimed the bomb used for the attack had been flown over the border from Ukraine into Russia in a balloon and hidden before it was picked up and used in the attack.<\/p>\n
The device was planted on instructions from Ukraine\u2019s spy agency by a man who had gotten a job at a grocery store near the apartment building where the victim lived, Fontanka said. It claimed that the man fled Russia immediately after the attack.<\/p>\n
Other Russian online media said the victim of the St. Petersburg bombing was a senior air force officer.<\/p>\n
There have been a series of bombings and shootings in Russia that targeted people involved in the fighting in Ukraine. Moscow has blamed Kyiv for the attacks.<\/p>\n
Kyiv has claimed responsibility for some attacks inside Russia. Ukraine\u2019s SBU security service said in December 2024 that it had organized the killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed the Russian military\u2019s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces.<\/p>\n
Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine\u2019s security service leveled criminal charges against him.<\/p>\n
In August of this year, a bomb ripped through an upscale restaurant in central \u2060Moscow, killing five people, including the bomber, and injuring about 20 others in what the mayor called a \u201cbrutal terrorist act.\u201d Russian media outlets claimed the bombing targeted Col.-Gen. Alexander Chaiko, who led the troops that made a botched attempt to storm the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in 2022 and later was appointed the air force chief.<\/p>\n
Later that month, the director of a Russian drone factory was badly injured and his driver was killed by a bomb planted in their car just outside Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. Also in August, a military servicema n was killed and his wife was injured by a car bomb on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
In September, a military serviceman was shot and injured in the city of Engels in Russia\u2019s Saratov region, which is home to a major base for long-range bombers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n