Russia blames Ukraine for deadly restaurant bombing in Moscow

Foreign ministry accuses Kyiv of carrying out attack reports say may have been aimed at air force chief

Russia has blamed Ukraine for a bombing at a restaurant in central Moscow that killed five people, amid growing speculation that a senior Russian military commander was the intended target.

The explosion occurred on Saturday evening near the entrance to an upmarket Italian restaurant in one of the city’s seven Stalin-era skyscrapers on Kudrinskaya Square.

Russian prosecutors said an unidentified woman carrying an improvised explosive device had attempted to enter the restaurant but was stopped by a security guard.

The device detonated moments later, killing five people and injuring 19 others.

In a statement on Sunday, Russia’s foreign ministry accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack, saying: “The bloody tentacles of [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s terrorist gang have reached the Balzi Rossi Italian restaurant in Moscow.”

Russian authorities have not identified the intended target or named the victims.

However, pro-Kremlin military bloggers and several independent Russian media outlets reported that the attack may have been aimed at Col Gen Alexander Chaiko, the commander of Russia’s aerospace forces, who was reportedly attending a private banquet at the restaurant to celebrate his 55th birthday.

Photographs and videos that appeared online shortly after the bombing, purportedly from the private event, showed a stage with the words “Aleksandr 55” displayed in the background.

Chaiko is one of Russia’s top military commanders, having led the failed assault on Kyiv in early 2022 before later being promoted to command the Russian air force.

The Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, which is known for publishing leaks from within Russia’s security services, reported that Chaiko escaped unharmed. According to the channel, his daughter, Maria, was seriously injured in the blast, while her husband, Daniil Peredriy, was killed. They were outside on the restaurant’s terrace when the explosion occurred.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that investigators believed the woman carrying the explosive device may not have known she was transporting a bomb, suggesting it was detonated remotely by another person, killing her.

Among the other reported victims was a member of Russia’s elite Federal Protective Service (FSO).

Kyiv has not yet commented on the incident.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s intelligence agencies have targeted dozens of senior Russian military officers and Russia-installed officials, accusing them of involvement in war crimes.

Ukrainian intelligence services have previously employed a range of tactics, relying on both willing saboteurs and unwitting civilians to carry out bombings.

They have succeeded in killing at least four Russian generals and several other senior military figures, as well as pro-war activists deep inside Russian territory, although some operations have missed their intended targets. In 2022, a car bomb killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of the ultranationalist Russian ideologue Aleksandr Dugin, in an attack widely believed to have been intended for her father.