Ex-Russian space boss injured in Donetsk shares post-surgery photo
Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of Russia’s state space agency Roscosmos, has shared a first photo after surgery.
He was wounded on December 21 when a hotel in Donetsk where he was staying in and celebrating his 59th birthday came under artillery fire. Russian media reported that two people were killed and several wounded in the attack.
In the photo posted on his page on Russian social media platform VK on Thursday morning, Rogozin is sitting in what appears to be a hospital room, raising his right fist. “Whoever is ready to go till the end, is always victorious,” Rogozin wrote.
Shortly after the shelling, Rogozin told RT from the hospital that he was injured in the back and “shrapnel got within a centimeter from the spine.”
Russian TV channel RBC quoted Rogozin’s aide as saying on Saturday that doctors had extracted a metal fragment from his body. “[The fragment] nearly hit his lung,” the aide said, adding that Rogozin had sustained a concussion.
According to the Russian Investigative Committee, Ukrainian troops hit the hotel using French-made Caesar self-propelled howitzers. Rogozin suggested that Ukrainian troops had fired at the resort because they wanted to kill Vitaly Khotsenko, the prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, who was also wounded in the attack.
The Ukrainian Border Guard (DPSU) released a statement on December 22, accusing Rogozin of “illegally crossing the Ukrainian border.” The DPSU added that it had “identified his whereabouts on the territory temporarily occupied by Russia.”
“We were unable to personally serve the offender his charge sheet, so concerned comrades handed it to him in the middle of a birthday celebration,” the DPSU wrote.
Known for his hawkish rhetoric towards the West, Rogozin served as Russia’s envoy to NATO between 2008 and 2011. He was then deputy prime minister for seven years and led Roscosmos from 2018 to July 2022.
He said last month that he was leading the Tsar Wolves, a group of volunteer military advisers in Donbass seeking to help local authorities with things such as targeting equipment and communications.
