Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
The officers wife reportedly lost her legs in the explosion.
A sudden blast shattered the quiet in St. Petersburg, the birth city of Vladimir Putin, on Thursday morning around 10 a.m. local time.
The explosion hit a Chinese-made Geely crossover parked outside a supermarket on Kolpinskoye Highway.
Russian news outlet Fontanka reported that the driver, a lieutenant colonel in the Russian military, died instantly at the scene. His wife sat in the passenger seat beside him and suffered severe injuries.
Emergency crews rushed the woman to an intensive care unit. Fontanka noted that preliminary reports indicated the wife lost her legs in the violent explosion.
According to The Moscow Times, authorities later confirmed that a person had been killed in the suspected car bomb. They did not release any details regarding the identities of the victims.
Ignition and investigation
Telegram channel Shot reported that the crossover blew up immediately after the driver started the engine. Investigators suspect an improvised explosive device was planted inside or underneath the vehicle.
Law enforcement officers opened a formal criminal investigation to determine who planted the device.
According to the Kyiv Post, car bombings have increasingly targeted senior Russian military and security figures since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Ukrainian officials offered no immediate comment regarding Thursday’s blast.
While Ukrainian intelligence sources have claimed responsibility for similar targeted attacks in the past, they occasionally deny direct involvement. The St. Petersburg blast fits a growing pattern of covert strikes deep inside Russian territory.
