Flowers are laid outside the cafe where Vladlen Tatarsky died on Sunday. (Photo: OLGA MALTSEVA / AFP)
A young woman from Russia is in custody after a top military blogger and supporter of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was killed in a bomb explosion at a street cafe in St. Petersburg is dead.
Vladlen Tatarsky (40) died after receiving a gift figurine, not knowing that the figurine was equipped with an explosive device.
Darya Trepova (26) has now admitted that she is the one who took the figurine to the cafe.
“I brought the figurine there which exploded,” Trepova says in a video released after her arrest.
Trepova says she will later reveal who gave her the figurine to give to Tatarsky.
The explosion happened early Sunday evening at the cafe Street Food Bar No. 1 took place along the Neva River, not far from the historic city center.
A total of 25 people were injured in the explosion, of whom 24 were hospitalized. At least seven of the injured are in a serious condition.
A source close to the investigation revealed to the Ria Novosti news agency shortly after the explosion that “a girl” dropped off a package for Tatarsky at the cafe.
“She gave it to him… and all of a sudden there was an explosion,” Alissa Smotrova, a woman who was at the cafe, told AFP.
“There was blood and pieces of glass…”
Another source told Ria Novosti that Tatarsky “knows” the girl and that they had crossed paths before on other occasions.
Last year, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trepova was detained for ten days for her participation in a protest against the invasion.
A group called Cyber Front Z, which refers to itself on social media as “Russia’s information troops”, attacked the cafe in St. Petersburg rented out for an event.
There were at least 100 people at the event when the figurine exploded.
Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, is from the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine that was annexed by Russia.
He has more than 500,000 followers on Telegram and is in favor of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine.
Tatarsky has made a name for himself over the past year by posting videos analyzing the military situation on the ground and giving advice to mobilized troops.
On Monday, Russian counter-terror investigators accused Ukraine’s security services and “agents” linked to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny of having a hand in the bombing.
Russia’s foreign ministry has since paid tribute to Tatarsky.
“Bloggers like Vladlen Tatarsky are defenders of the truth,” says Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the ministry, on Telegram.
“Russian journalists constantly face the threat of retaliation by the Kiev regime. It is thanks to Russian war correspondents that the world sees true images and finds out what is happening in Ukraine.”
Zakharova says Tatarsky was “dangerous” for Ukraine, “but was brave to the end and fulfilled his duty”.
