An unknown person attempted to kill an officer of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) in the city of Engels, Saratov Region, a law enforcement source told Kommersant. According to him, the incident occurred on the morning of September 3 near a cottage in the Probudzhenie settlement of Engels. According to Shot, the attacker was on a motorcycle and hid his face with a helmet. He shot the soldier twice as he was leaving a store, then fled. One of the bullets hit the man in the face, the second in the body.
The soldier's driver was also injured, but was able to call an ambulance, Mash notes. The officer was taken to Saratov, where doctors provided him with urgent medical care. After that, it was decided to send him to Moscow by special plane for further treatment. The Ukrainian monitoring channel Supernova+ claims that the assassination attempt was made on Major General Nikolai Varpakhovich, commander of the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division of the Russian Air Force.
Earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the country's Prosecutor General's Office had remotely identified Varpakhovich as a suspect in connection with the missile strike on the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kiev on July 8, 2024. According to the investigation, he gave the combat order to launch a missile strike, after which the long-range aviation units subordinate to him launched a Kh-101 cruise missile from a Tu-95MS bomber-missile carrier.
According to Kommersant, after the attempted murder, the settlement where the emergency occurred was cordoned off. Investigative and operational groups of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service and the police are working at the scene. The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case under the articles of attempted murder (Part 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Part 1 of Article 105) and illegal trafficking in weapons (Part 1 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
