In a restaurant in central Moscow, where an explosion occurred on the evening of August 1, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces Alexander Chaiko, who led the offensive of Russian troops on Kyiv in 2022, could have been celebrating his birthday.
This is what Russian media and "military circles" write about.
In addition, in the video published last night with preparations for the event, the inscription "Alexander 55" is visible on the stage — this is how old Alexander Chaiko turned on July 27, and the celebration was supposed to take place yesterday.
According to Russian news channels, among the guests at the event was a group of high-ranking FSB officials, as well as officials, deputies, and generals from the Ministry of Defense.
The Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee has officially confirmed that the explosion at the Balzi Rossi restaurant was caused by an improvised explosive device. A woman who died in the explosion tried to carry it.
The second deceased was a security guard who was not letting a woman into the restaurant, and the third was a restaurant visitor. At least 21 more people were injured. What happened to Chaiko is still unknown. Russian news channels are reporting that he is alive — he allegedly read a message sent to him in Telegram.
Who is Alexander Chaiko?
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, in 2022, Colonel General Chaiko headed the Eastern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces, planned the invasion of northern Ukraine, and led an attempted offensive on Kyiv from the west. He was in charge of units responsible for the mass killings of civilians in the Kyiv region.
Before the full-scale invasion, Chaiko repeatedly led a group of Russian troops in Syria, where he was accused of involvement in the bombing of civilian objects. Only in May of this year was he appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
In Ukraine, Chaika is being tried in absentia for war crimes. In particular, it was he who gave the order to bomb civilian houses in the Vyshgorod district of the Kyiv region and to shell apartment buildings in Borodyanka with high-explosive aerial bombs in March 2022.
The Prosecutor Generalʼs Office established that in March 2022, Chaiko lived for two weeks in the village of Zdvizhivka (Bucha district), where he set up a headquarters in a captured kindergarten, from which he directed the fighting to capture the capital. And at the stadium in the village of Katyuzhanka, he presented Russian state awards to his subordinate military personnel. This year, the European Union imposed sanctions against him.
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