Former Ukrainian Security Service officer reportedly hospitalized after car explodes in Moscow

A Toyota Land Cruiser exploded in northern Moscow on Friday afternoon, Russian state media reported, citing emergency responders. The blast was reportedly caused by an unidentified device under the vehicle.

According to multiple Russian Telegram channels, the vehicle belongs to Vasily Prozorov, a former Ukrainian National Security Service (SBU) official who has been living in Moscow for several years.

The channel Shot reported that the explosion occurred immediately after the car’s driver started the engine. According to the channel Mash, the driver was hospitalized with leg injuries. Multiple other cars were reportedly also damaged by the blast.

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case over the incident. According to the Telegram channel 112, the case is being investigated as an assassination attempt.

Vasily Prozorov worked for the Ukrainian SBU until 2018. In a 2019 press conference in Moscow, he said that he had collaborated with Russia “for ideological reasons” from April 2014 until his departure from the agency. At the same event, he accused the Ukrainian authorities of being responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014. (Two Russian citizens and a Ukrainian citizen who led Russian-backed separatist forces were found guilty of downing the aircraft by a Dutch court in 2022.)

The SBU has said that it fired Prozorov “for professional misconduct,” including “systematic alcohol consumption at the workplace.” The agency has called the former officer a traitor and a liar.