A grenade attack at a barber shop in occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine has left a top policeman appointed by Vladimir Putin severely wounded, according to reports.
Maj-Gen Igor Kornet, 50, was one of three hospitalised in a grave condition after a huge explosion, that reports said had also killed one unnamed civilian.
Unconfirmed reports said Kornet had died but local officials insisted he was alive.
Kornet is acting interior minister in Luhansk People’s Republic, which the Russian president has declared annexed, and claims as part of Russia. He is also understood to be a friend of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group.
The bomb came after Luhansk had been targeted by British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles in an unrelated Ukrainian attack earlier today.
Maj-Gen Igor Kornet (pictured), 50, was one of three hospitalised in a grave condition after a huge explosion, that reports said had also killed one unnamed civilian
The top Putin-appointed policeman in the occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine was severely wounded by a bomb in a barber shop today. Pictured: The inside of the barber shop is seen in the aftermath of the explosion that is said to have wounded a number of people
Pictured: The interior of the barber shop is seen in an online post before the attack
The bomb exploded in The Brothers barber shop in central Luhansk.
Its location is next to the local TV and radio station, and the suspicion is that Kornet was the target of a grenade thrown into the barber’s shop at 78 Demkina Street.
Russian news agency TASS said five were wounded, three in a critical condition.
Kornet is seen as being close to Wagner mercenary warlord Prigozhin, and the attack might be seen as a warning to Prigozhin who has become increasingly outspoken against the Kremlin’s defence officials in recent weeks.
Major military blogger Anatoly Shariy said: ‘According to my information, Kornet is gone [dead]. But officially they report that he was wounded.’
This was contradicted by a LPR health official who said: ‘He is alive. His condition is stable.’
TASS reported: ‘The explosion occurred inside a barbershop. ‘It looks like it was a hand grenade because the explosion broke the windows and the door.
‘Several people were wounded.
‘The site has been cordoned off by the police. Ambulances are seen at the site.’
Pictured and video from the scene showed a bombed-out building with a huge gaping hole in the side. A barber chair could be seen sat in front of a wall, ripped open down to the bricks.
Outside, a front garden was covered in debris, while a pool of blood could also be seen in footage broadcast on Russian television, suggesting someone outside had been seriously wounded.
If Kornet has been killed in the attack, his name would be added to an abnormally long list of senior Russian military figures to have been killed in attacks.
News of the purported grenade attack came after Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday that Ukrainian aircraft had struck two industrial sites in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine with Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles supplied by Britain.
Britain on Thursday became the first country to say it had started supplying Kyiv with long-range cruise missiles, which will allow it to hit Russian troops and supply dumps far behind the front lines as it prepares a major counteroffensive.
Pictured: The outside of the barber shop is seen in Luhansk today. Debris is scattered over the front lawn outside the barber shop, where a pool of blood is out of frame
Pictured: The windows of the barber shop are seen after it was destroyed in an explosion
The bomb exploded in The Brothers barber shop in central Luhansk (pictured)
British Defence Minister Ben Wallace said the missiles could be used within Ukrainian territory, implying that he had received assurances from Kyiv that they would not be used to attack targets inside Russia’s internationally accepted borders.
These exclude Luhanks, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea.
Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and in September last year claimed to annex the other four as well, despite not being in full control of any of the four regions at the time.
Ukraine is now expected to launch a counter offensive to push Russia back further, and liberate more of the eastern territories occupied by Russia.
Kyiv has stepped up attacks on military targets behind Russian lines, a sign the country is working to damage Moscow’s supply of arms.
The Russian ministry said the Storm-Shadow missiles had hit a plant producing polymers and a meat-processing factory in Luhansk on Friday.
‘Storm Shadow air-to-air missiles supplied to the Kyiv regime by Britain were used for the strike, contrary to London’s statements that these weapons would not be used against civilian targets,’ the ministry said.
It also said Russia had downed two Ukrainian warplanes – an Su-24 and a MiG-29 – that had launched the missiles.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia viewed Britain’s decision to supply the missiles ‘extremely negatively’.
‘Britain claims to be at the forefront among those countries that continue to pump weapons into Ukraine,’ he told reporters in a daily call.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday for the first time that it had downed a long-range Storm Shadow missile.
The ministry said in its daily briefing on the Ukraine conflict that it had shot down the cruise missile, as well as shorter-range U.S.-built HIMARS-launched and HARM missiles. MailOnline was unable to verify the reports.
As news of the potential killing of Kornet emerged, the the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group on slammed reports that alleged he offered information on Russian troop positions to Ukraine as ‘laughable’ and a result of a possible smear campaign.
Prigozhin has in recent days sharpened his rhetoric against the Russian defence ministry, issuing scathing videos about Moscow’s generals.
Wagner fighters have spearheaded Moscow’s fight for the east Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and Prigozhin’s influence has skyrocketed since Moscow’s offensive.
The Washington Post published a story Sunday based on unverified US intelligence leaks on Prigozhin having contact with Ukrainian intelligence in January.
According to US documents, the newspaper said, Prigozhin had offered to Kyiv information on Russian army positions in exchange for Ukrainian troops to withdraw from areas near Bakhmut.
Prigozhin laughed off the report in an audio message posted on Telegram.
‘Reading this is of course nice. It means I am not only fighting for Russia but Zelensky is also fulfilling my orders,’ Prigozhin said. ‘This is laughable.’
Kornet is seen as being close to the head of Wagner mercenary warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, (pictured) and the attack might be seen as a warning to Prigozhin
He said ‘people from Rublevka’ – a luxurious Moscow suburb home to the Russian elite – could be behind the allegations.
‘Of course they will pour as much s**t on me as they can,’ he said.
Last week, Prigozhin accused Moscow’s conventional army of ‘fleeing’ positions around Bakhmut. He has repeatedly claimed that the Russian defence ministry was refusing to deliver ammunition to his soldiers.
Some analysts have suggested he has crossed a line in recent weeks with his comments, and that he is under threat of retaliation by Putin.
