Prominent pro-Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion in St. Petersburg on Sunday, according to Russian media.
Tatarsky was participating in an event at a cafe in Russia’s second-largest city when he was killed. Russian media says a woman gifted him a figurine at the event that exploded a few minutes later, killing him and injuring 15 others. Tatarsky was a major proponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Eyewitnesses say Tatarsky appeared to know the woman who gave him the figurine, according to Russian outlet RIA. The woman, who has yet to be identified, has been placed on a wanted list.
Tatarsky had traveled to the front lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine multiple times. He had also visited the Kremlin in 2022 and filmed himself speaking about Russia’s right to conquest.
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“We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone as necessary. Just as we like it,” he said at the time, according to the BBC.
Tatarsky gained popularity on the Telegram social media platform, where he had some 500,000 followers.
The group Cyber Front Z had rented out the cafe and later released a statement on the blast from its own Telegram account, the BBC reported.
“There was a terrorist attack. We took certain security measures but unfortunately they were not enough,” the group wrote. “Condolences to everyone who knew the excellent war correspondent and our friend Vladlen Tatarsky.”
