RUSSIA, MOSCOW, Nov. 13 — Serhii Zavorotnyi, a Russian propagandist and former press secretary to Mykola Azarov, the former prime minister of Ukraine, was driving when his car exploded, Ukrainska Pravda, a Ukrainian media outlet, said, citing the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and Russian Telegram channels.

Journalists said that the explosion occurred when the car left the yard. The blast threw the driver out of the vehicle onto the roadway.

According to early reports, there was a homemade explosive device under the driver’s seat, which detonated while the car was moving.

A 72-year-old Zavorotnyi survived. Medics hospitalized him with shrapnel injuries to his chest and back and severe injuries to his legs.

According to the Russian Telegram channel Mash, Zavorotnyi is in the hospital. Doctors amputated his left arm. He has a concussion, broken ribs, and a broken right leg. The situation is complicated by his cancer history, as in 2009, he underwent surgery for kidney cancer, and in 2021, the cancer recurred — the metastases had spread to his pelvic bones.

Serhii Zavorotnyi is a Russian journalist who previously worked in the Russian State Duma. 

During Mykola Azarov’s service as prime minister of Ukraine, from 2010 to 2014, Zavorotnyi was his advisor. After Azarov fled to Moscow, Zavorotnyi helped establish the so-called “Ukraine Salvation Committee” in July 2015 — a Russian-controlled initiative of former high-ranking Ukrainian officials from the administration of Viktor Yanukovych, former president of Ukraine, ousted from the country during Euromaidan protests in 2014.

Important Stories, a Russian media outlet, said that volume 5 of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election identifies Zavorotnyi as an officer of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service involved in influence operations.

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