Hit by a Ukrainian strike, the ex-boss of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, was injured in Donetsk, stronghold of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and must undergo surgery, a-t he indicated on Telegram on Thursday.
Removed from his position as head of Roscosmos in July, Dmitry Rogozin, who currently leads a group of military advisers providing assistance to separatist forces in Ukraine, suffers from a back injury, a piece of shell being lodged above of his right shoulder blade, according to the same source.
The incident took place on Wednesday evening in a hotel in Donetsk where the former boss of the agency was staying, as well as several local officials.
The strike, which left several dead and injured, was carried out "with high-precision ammunition, probably taken from the truck equipped with a French Caesar artillery system," said the Russian Investigation Committee, in charge of the main investigations.
Belligerent statements
If Dmitry Rogozin assures that the incident occurred at the time of a “work meeting” in the restaurant of the hotel, the Russian public television channel Rossia 24 affirmed that the ex-boss of Roscosmos was celebrating there. his 59th birthday on Wednesday, with guests and musicians.
The channel broadcast images of festive tables overturned in a restaurant hall with shattered windows and partially destroyed walls.
Dmitry Rogozin is said to have stayed at this hotel regularly in recent months, during his trips to Donetsk, as part of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
Read alsoThreats to the ISS, provocations, insults: the delusions of Dmitry Rogozin, the disturbing boss of the Russian space agency
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, the former head of the Russian space agency, who was also Russian ambassador to NATO, has distinguished himself by his bellicose statements against the West, touting the destruction Russian nuclear weapons could inflict.
In office for five years at the head of the agency, Dmitri Rogozin had not however managed to stem the decline of the Russian space industry, undermined by obsolescence, the lack of innovation and corruption.
In 2020, Russia thus lost the monopoly of sending into space with its aging Soyuz launchers and vessels with the arrival on the scene of SpaceX of the billionaire Elon Musk.