Dmitri Rogozin, the former Russian deputy prime minister and ex-boss of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, claims he sent shrapnel to French President Emmanuel Macron. The shard is said to have come from a Caesar cannon that France had supplied to Ukraine and is thought to have wounded Rogozin in an attack.
Rogozin, 59, was injured in December after a Ukrainian attack on a hotel in the occupied eastern city of Donetsk. The bombing killed and injured several people.
According to the former Roskosmos chief, the attack took place during a “working meeting” in the hotel’s restaurant, which would serve as the headquarters for military advisers. However, the television channel ‘Rossia 24’ claims that the Russian was there celebrating his 59th birthday with numerous guests and musicians. After the bombing, Rogozin was taken to hospital because a piece of grenade had lodged in his shoulder blade.
“Was nearly paralyzed or dead”
Rogozin, a staunch supporter of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, wrote a letter to the French ambassador in Moscow Pierre Levy and shared its contents on Telegram. “In this envelope, together with my letter, you will see a fragment of a shell from a French Caesar cannon. It pierced my right shoulder and got stuck in my fifth cervical vertebra, just a millimeter further and I was paralyzed or dead,” said the former deputy prime minister.
According to Rogozin, two of his friends were killed in the attack. The prime minister of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Vitali Khotsenko, was also injured. “You have all those victims on your conscience. I ask you to hand over the fragment removed from my spine by the surgeons to French President Emmanuel Macron. And tell him that no one will escape responsibility for war crimes,” he added.
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