By Mark Trevelyan
Aug 5 (Reuters) – The head of a Russian drone factory was seriously wounded and his driver killed when their car was blown up near the city of Yekaterinburg, in what appeared to be the latest in a series of targeted attacks linked to the war in Ukraine.
State news agency TASS cited a source in the emergency services as saying that Vladimir Tkachuk, head of the Uraldronzavod company, was in intensive care and that medics were fighting for his life.
The attack took place on Tuesday, according to one Russian war blogger, but the details emerged only a day later and were widely reported across Russian media.
Mash, a news outlet with sources in the police and security services, said Tkachuk’s Mercedes was destroyed by an explosive device hidden underneath it. The driver, also described in some reports as a bodyguard, was killed on the spot, it said.
STRING OF ASSASSINATIONS
Russia has blamed Ukraine for a string of previous assassinations of senior military officials and people linked to Moscow’s war effort.
Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some attacks while denying blame for others. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv on the latest incident.
Tkachuk’s company makes “Vampire” first-person drones – which are controlled by an operator wearing goggles fed by a live video feed – which have been widely used by Russia on the front lines of the conflict in Ukraine.
He also ran a popular Telegram channel, “Obsessed with War”, which collected funds for the military.
Tkachuk had demonstrated the Vampire to top officials including President Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, according to Yekaterinburg news outlet e1.ru.
It was the second attack in a week on Russian drone makers. On July 30, Andrei Cherezov, developer of a model called “Gadfly”, was shot and wounded by an unknown assailant.
Drones have come to dominate the Ukraine war, now midway through its fifth year. News of the car bombing broke shortly after Putin named a commander to head Russia’s Unmanned Systems Forces, a newly established branch of the military.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan in London; Editing by Andrew Osborn and David Holmes)
