Russia’s former space chief Dmitry Rogozin said early that Thursday he and several others were wounded in shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
Rogozin, a nationalist politician and avid backer of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said “someone leaked information” about his “working meeting in a small group” at a local hotel on Wednesday evening.
“Several high-precision hits occurred around 19:45, including the direct place we were in,” Rogozin said in a post on his Telegram messaging app channel.
“A 3×4 mm metal splinter entered my right shoulder blade,” he wrote, adding that he is expected to undergo surgery.
Rogozin’s aide told state media earlier that the ex-space chief was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Two people were killed in the attack, Denis Pushilin, who heads the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) that Putin claimed to have annexed in September, said Thursday.
Pushilin said his second in command, the DNR’s head of government Vitaly Khotsenko, was also wounded in the attack.
Rogozin, who had previously also served as Putin’s deputy prime minister and envoy to NATO, was replaced as head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos in July.
Russian media reported as late as this fall that Putin could appoint Rogozin as his envoy to four partially Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions and annexed Crimea. The Kremlin declined to disclose its plans for Rogozin at the time.
The state-run TASS news agency identified Rogozin’s current role as the head of a group of military advisers dubbed “Tsar’s Wolves.”
