Former Russian space chief Dmitry Rogozin, who was wounded in an artillery strike on the city of Donetsk, has said someone leaked his location to Ukrainian forces. He also said he would have to undergo surgery after shrapnel lodged in his back above the right shoulder blade.
The details were shared by Rogozin in a post on social media on Thursday, his first since the Wednesday evening incident. He stated he and his associates had been living for months in the hotel targeted by the strike. “In eight years the enemy didn’t shell the location a single time,” he claimed.
Rogozin has held several high-profile jobs in the Russian government, and is currently leading a volunteer unit dubbed ‘Tsar Wolves’ in Donbass.
One person was initially reported killed and several others injured in the strike. Denis Pushilin, the acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), reported during a TV interview on Thursday morning that a second person had succumbed to their wounds.
Russian media previously said that doctors in Donetsk believed that the shrapnel piece that injured Rogozin could not be safely removed.
There were some reports that Rogozin and his associates were celebrating his birthday at the hotel’s restaurant, when the strike happened. One man described the event as a “working meeting of the in-crowd” after the unit’s return from a frontline deployment.
In addition to Rogozin, the prime minister of the DPR, Vitaly Khotsenko, was also reported hurt.