St Petersburg cafe blast kills top Russian military blogger

A prominent Russian military blogger was killed Sunday and 25 others injured in an explosion at a cafe in Russia's second-largest city of Saint Petersburg, the interior ministry said.

"One person was killed in the incident. He was military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky," the ministry said on Telegram.

Investigators later said they had confirmed "an unidentified explosive device exploded in a cafe in central St Petersburg", and had opened a murder inquiry.

The health ministry said that a total of 25 people were injured in the blast, 24 of whom were taken to hospital.

Six of the injured were said to be in serious condition.

The explosion occurred at "Street Food Bar No. 1", located along the Neva river not far from the historic city centre, with the interior ministry saying police had been called to the scene at 6:13 pm (1513 GMT).

Officers cordoned off the street outside the building with around 20 police cars, alongside six ambulances as well as fire trucks, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

The TASS news agency quoted a law enforcement source as saying the blast was "caused by an improvised explosive device hidden inside a statue given to Tatarsky as a gift".

The Ria Novosti agency, quoting a source close to the inquiry, said "a girl" had supposedly dropped off a package with a "figurine" inside intended for the blogger.

"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 "knew" the suspected deliverer of the package, and that they had crossed paths at other "events", without giving further details.

- Terrorism? -

Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, has more than 500,000 followers on Telegram and is in favour of Russia's campaign in Ukraine.

He made his name early in the operation by publishing videos analysing the military situation on the ground and offering advice for mobilised troops, according to TASS.

A group called Cyber Front Z, which refers to itself on social media as "Russia's information troops", said it had hired out the cafe for the evening.

A local media outlet, Fontanka, said there were at least 100 people at the event.

"There was a terrorist attack. We took certain security measures but unfortunately they were not enough," the group said on Telegram.

"Condolences to everyone who knew the excellent war correspondent and our friend Vladlen Tatarsky," it said.

The 40-year-old Tatarsky came from the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which Russia claims to have annexed and which is currently mostly held by Russian troops.

Reacting to the attack, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Twitter the "question of when domestic terrorism would become an instrument of internal political fight was a matter of time".

In August 2022, Russia's FSB security services accused Ukraine of being behind a car bombing outside Moscow that killed the daughter of hard-line Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin -- charges denied by Kyiv.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said bloggers like Tatarsky "are defenders of the truth", and lashed out at Western governments for not reacting quickly to the bombing.

A failure to comment "despite their concerns for the welfare of journalists and the free press speaks for itself", she said, an apparent reference to widespread condemnation of the arrest of US reporter Evan Gershkovich.

Ukraine says army still "holds" Bakhmut

Ukraine's army said Sunday it still "holds" the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russia's Wagner mercenary group claimed it had captured "in a legal sense" by occupying its administration building.

"The enemy has not stopped its assault of Bakhmut. However, Ukrainian defenders are courageously holding the city as they repel numerous enemy attacks," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on its Facebook page.

The head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on his Telegram channel Monday: "In a legal sense, Bakhmut has been captured. The enemy is concentrated in western areas."

In a video accompanying the post, Prigozhin could be seen holding a Russian flag inscribed in honour of Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed in a bomb attack in a cafe in Saint Petersburg on Sunday.

The fight for Bakhmut is the longest battle of Russia's offensive in Ukraine.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have invested heavily in the struggle for Bakhmut, even though analysts say the city carries little strategic value.

Ukraine says the battle for the industrial town is key to holding back Russian forces along the entire eastern front.