Second Car Bomb in Two Days Hits Russia, Gravely Wounding a Moscow-Based Former Aide to Ukraine's Pro-Kremlin Ex-Premier

A bomb exploded under a car in southern Moscow on Friday morning, seriously wounding a former spokesman for Ukraine's pro-Russian ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, in the second car bombing to strike Russia in two days.

Russia's Investigative Committee said the man was behind the wheel when the blast went off on Kirovogradskaya Street in the Chertanovo district, that he was taken to a Moscow hospital, and that it had opened an attempted-murder case, The Moscow Times reported. Russian media identified him as Sergei Zavorotny, 72, a journalist who once served as Azarov's press secretary; some outlets spell his name Zavorotniy.

The Kyiv Independent, citing Russian reports, said the vehicle was a black Toyota Fortuner registered to Zavorotny and that it had traveled roughly 200 meters before the device went off.

His injuries are grave. The Moscow Times and the Kyiv Independent reported a brain contusion, broken ribs, a fractured shinbone and the loss of his left arm. The BBC said Russian authorities described him as seriously hurt. Newsweek reported that Azarov told the state news agency TASS he knew only that his former aide had survived.

Newsweek, citing the Russian daily Kommersant, reported that Zavorotny moved to Russia after Ukraine's 2014 Maidan uprising, the upheaval that ended the Kremlin-friendly government Azarov served. The Guardian described him as a suspected intelligence agent and reported that the attack is thought to have been orchestrated by Kyiv. No arrests or claims of responsibility had been reported as of Friday morning, Newsweek said.

The Moscow explosion came a day after a bomb tore through an SUV outside St. Petersburg on Thursday, killing a senior Russian military officer, The Guardian reported. Taken together, the two attacks struck the outskirts of St. Petersburg and the capital itself within roughly a day.

The pattern is not new. In December 2025, a bomb fixed beneath a car on Yaseneva Street in Moscow killed Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, who headed the operational training department of Russia's General Staff, and investigators said at the time that Ukrainian involvement was one possible scenario, Semafor reported.

The two bombings land while peace talks between Russia and Ukraine continue, the BBC noted. Each new attack deep inside Russia gives hard-liners in Moscow a fresh argument against compromise, and it reminds American negotiators how far the two sides remain from trust.

For American readers, the lesson is that a lasting peace depends on more than diplomats around a conference table. A wave of targeted killings, whoever is behind it, makes the work of ending this war harder, not easier, and it raises the risk that talks stall just as they gain momentum.

Newsweek reported that the Moscow case could be reclassified as a terrorism investigation, and no suspect has been named. Zavorotny's condition and any claim of responsibility are the next details to watch. Liberty Bell Report is tracking this story and will update it as new facts are confirmed.