06 March 2024 , 12:41
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Russia claimed today that Ukraine attempted to assassinate one of Vladimir Putin’s top weapons designers.
A Molotov cocktail was reportedly thrown at the cottage home of Soviet and Russian rocket scientist Valery Kashin, 76, who remains in charge of high-precision weapons during the dictator’s war with Ukraine. A 28-year-old Moscow resident Roman Nerobelov, 28, has been detained over the incident at Kashin’s home in Kolomna, Moscow region.
The detainee told police that he had received a call tasking him with throwing the bomb to avoid £13,000 debt problems. The police claimed “scammers from Ukraine” were behind the plot. Kashin - seen in a picture with Putin - was unhurt after the Molotov cocktail failed to ignite when it hit the front of the scientist’s house, said reports. A case of attempted murder has been opened against Nerobelov.
Kashin - born in Soviet Ukraine - is deputy general director of JSC NPO High-Precision Complexes and general designer of JSC Research and Production Corporation Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau. He supervised the creation of major Russian anti-tank, anti-aircraft and operational-tactical high-precision weapons. Among these were the all-weather multi-purpose anti-tank missile system Chrysanthemum-S, the man-portable anti-aircraft missile system Igla-S, the operational-tactical missile system Iskander-M, along with multiple missile types.
He is regarded as Russia’s leading brain in high-precision weapons. Kashin is the author of more than 150 scientific works, according to reports. Nerobelov could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. Meanwhile, Ukrainian sea drones reportedly sank another Russian warship in the Black Sea on Tuesday, the latest in a series of strikes that has crippled Moscow’s naval capability and limited its operations with the war now in its third year.
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In the latest reported strike, Ukrainian naval drones attacked the Sergei Kotov patrol ship near the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, according to Ukraine's military intelligence agency. The strike, which couldn't be independently verified, killed seven members of the Russian crew and injured six others, while 52 were rescued, the agency said. The Russian Defense Ministry didn’t comment on the claim, but some Russian military bloggers confirmed the ship's loss and said its crew had been rescued.
The strike, if verified, would mark the latest successful use of Ukraine's domestically produced Magura drones, the agile uncrewed boats that have become the Russian navy's nemesis. Just last month, drones sank Russia's Caesar Kunikov amphibious landing ship and Ivanovets missile corvette. The Russian military hasn’t acknowledged those losses, either, but they have been reported by Russian military bloggers and some media.