This is the moment a controversial colonel in Ukraine‘s secret services who switched sides to Russia today survived a car bomb assassination bid in Moscow.
A video shows the moment his SUV explodes, leaving him with arm and leg wounds, for which he is being treated in hospital.
Former Lt-Col of the Ukrainian SBU, Vasily Prozorov, 48, was seen walking to his vehicle before the explosion.
He was later seen in pictures sitting on the back of the car, wounded. His car was mangled in the explosion but his life is not threatened, according to reports.
A source in the emergency services confirmed to Russian media that Prozorov was wounded after the explosive device was set off.
A controversial colonel in Ukraine ‘s secret services who switched sides to Russia today survived an assassination bid in Moscow. Pictured: The moment the car belonging to Former Lt-Col of the Ukrainian SBU, Vasily Prozorov, blew up today
Prozorov was shown wounded after the attack. His car was mangled in the explosion but his life is not threatened, according to reports
The anonymous source said the explosion happened as Prozorov started his car outside his home in northern Moscow.
Russian state media quoted a source close to Prozorov – also anonymously – who said he was alive and that his life was not in danger.
‘He is alive, everything is fine,’ the source was quoted as saying.
Prozorov is regarded as a traitor in his homeland.
He moved to Russia ‘a few years ago’, and has been cooperating with the Russian intelligence services since 2014, it is reported.
RIA Novosti said Friday he had given an interview to the agency days before the apparent assassination attempt.
It quoted him as saying that he used to work for the SBU in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, before moving to Kyiv in April 2014 and ‘contacted representatives of Russian security services and suggested cooperation’.
Prozorov is seen following the car explosion today. Reports suggest he was wounded
Footage showed Prozorov being taken away in a stretcher after the assassination attempt
‘From the first days I started to work, giving information to the security services of the Russian Federation,’ he said.
In March 2019, Prozorov gave a press conference in Moscow saying he moved for ‘ideological reasons.’
Recently he trumpeted the Putin regime playbook by telling the media that Ukraine was to blame for the Crocus City Hall concert venue shootout in which 145 died.
No hard evidence exists that Kyiv is responsible. The attack has been claimed by Islamic State affiliated terrorists, which US intelligence has assessed to be the case.
Despite this, Prozorov said: ‘I am absolutely sure that there are Ukrainian fingerprints on what happened at Crocus City Hall.
‘It’s a Ukraine-invented pattern of action.
Prozorov is regarded as a traitor in his homeland. He moved to Russia ‘a few years ago’, and has been cooperating with the Russian intelligence services since 2014, it is reported
‘As for the terrorists’ behaviour, professionals will immediately say that it looks more like a special operation.’
In reference the West saying the concert hall attack was the work of an ISIS affiliate, Brozorov said it was nothing like terrorist attacks ‘conducted by Islamic fundamentalists, whose ultimate goal is to die battling infidels’.
He insisted: ‘In this case, it was a sabotage operation.’
A number of officials who have collaborated with Moscow have been targeted by assassination attempts in occupied Ukraine during Russia’s two-year long invasion.