A senior Russian general close to Vladimir Putin has reportedly survived an assassination attempt after a homemade bomb delivered to a Moscow restaurant exploded, killing five people.
Another 19 people were injured when the device, said to have been disguised as a gift, was carried into the Balzi Rossi restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square, a little over a mile from the Kremlin.
The restaurant was hosting a 55th birthday celebration for Alexander Chayko, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces and a prominent wartime commander.
Chayko survived the blast, but local reports said his son-in-law was killed and his daughter was left seriously injured.
The lavish party, reportedly costing £85,000, was attended by Moscow politicians, senior military and intelligence figures, and influential government officials.
Reports said the homemade explosive was packed with metal balls and detonated with a force equivalent to around 1kg of TNT.
Daniil Peredriy, 27, a former professional ice hockey player, was among two victims who died in hospital today after suffering injuries in the explosion, according to reports.
His wife, Chayko’s 25-year-old daughter Maria Peredriy, reportedly sustained an “open traumatic brain injury” in the attack.
The female bomber was killed after she was stopped near the restaurant’s outside terrace.
Alexander Chayko, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces and a senior war commander, was celebrating his 55th birthday at the restaurant
Pictured: The blast took place outside the upmarket Balzi Rossi eatery in Kudrinskaya Square, just over a mile from the Kremlin, at around 8.10pm local time today
Chayko’s daughter, Maria Peredriy, 25, suffered an ‘open traumatic brain injury’ in the blast
In June, Chayko was branded a ‘war criminal’ by Ukraine.
The general is a decorated war hero in Russia and was behind a ruthless aerial bombing of Ukraine with Tu-95MS.
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On Sunday, Ukrainian forces also attacked his Engels-2 airbase in Saratov region.
In 2022, Chayko commanded Russian forces on the front line in Kyiv, when his troops carried out the notorious barbaric mass rapes, tortures and murders in Bucha, near Kyiv, during Putin’s initial invasion of Ukraine when at least 450 were killed.
The Bucha Massacre is seen as one of the worst Russian war crimes of the conflict.
While no official confirmation of casualties has been reported, claims are consistent with details reported on Channel 112 – close to the Russian security services.
It named Maria P, 25, as wounded, and said Daniil P, 27, was rushed to hospital following the blast.
Images posted on Russian Telegram channels showed fire engines and ambulances rushing to the scene, which is at one of Moscow’s seven Stalin-era skyscrapers.
Traffic near Kudrinskaya Square has been temporarily blocked and the entrances to the Barrikadnaya metro station have been closed.
Photographs from the scene show heavily armed cops standing guard beside a police cordon.
A spokesman for Moscow police said: ‘From the information we have, an explosion happened today at around 8.10pm (5.10pm GMT) near a summer cafe, causing three deaths and 15 injured, of varying degrees of seriousness.’
Pro-Kremlin Readovka channel reported: ‘A forensic team from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and emergency services are working at the scene.’
Daniil Peredriy, 27, a former professional ice hockey player, was one of two people who died today in hospital after sustaining injuries in the blast, according to reports. His wife and Chayko’s daughter, Maria Peredriy, 25, suffered an ‘open traumatic brain injury’ in the blast.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian report claimed that high-flying Russian Major-General Dmitry Mikhailov, 39, one of Putin’s youngest generals, was killed after being hit by a FPV drone in the war zone.
An earlier Russian report acknowledged that he had been seriously wounded while travelling in an armoured Tigr vehicle after allegedly dismissing warnings about Ukrainian drones.
There was no official confirmation of the report.
He had been linked by Ukrainian investigators to war crimes in Russia’s brutal occupation of the Izium area.
Ukrainian investigators had branded Mikhailov a war criminal over the conduct of units under his command during the occupation of the Izium area.
More than a dozen Russian generals have died in the war. Putin appointed him a general when he was only 36.
