Bomb that killed a Russian soldier might have targeted the ‘Butcher of Bucha’

By Ivana Kottasová, Kosta Gak, Anna Chernova, CNN

(CNN) — A bomb that killed a soldier in a remote Russian town was likely targeting a notorious Russian commander known as the Butcher of Bucha, Russian and Ukrainian media and military bloggers said.

Russian authorities said the bomb attack on Tuesday in the far-east Khabarovsk region killed one person and injured several others.

Russian media and military bloggers reported the person who was killed was a soldier with the rank of lieutenant colonel, adding the attack happened inside a closed military barracks.

VChK-OGPU, a well-known Russian military blogger, said the real target was Major General Azatbek Omurbekov, who was involved in some of the worst massacres against civilians committed by the Russian military in Ukraine.

Omurbekov was in charge of the 64th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, which operated in the Kyiv region during the initial weeks of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.

The unit was named by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense as war criminals after the bodies of murdered civilians and and mass graves were discovered following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the region.

Not long after the announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a honorary title to the brigade.

The entire unit and Omurbekov personally were later sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and about a dozen of other allies of Ukraine for their involvement in “gross violations of human rights” in Ukraine.

A court in Khabarovsk said on Thursday that three people involved in the bombing and what it described as “the destabilisation of government bodies” have been remanded, one of them in absentia.

Ukraine has not commented on the attack.

If confirmed, Omurbekov would be just the latest senior figure in the Russian military and security services to be targeted.

A Russian general serving as deputy head of Russian military intelligence was shot and seriously wounded in Moscow in February, while two others were killed in a car bombings in Moscow – one in December and one in April last year. Russian officials pointed the finger at Ukraine. Kyiv has not commented.

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