The Investigative Committee of Russia has published a video of a man detained on suspicion of attempted murder of former writer Zakhar Prilepin. He calls his name – Permyakov Alexander Anatolyevich. According to him, he was born in Druzhkovka, Donetsk region, in 1993. In 2018, he was allegedly “recruited by the Ukrainian special services.” On their own instructions, he came to Russia in 2022 to “eliminate” Prilepin. Permyakov claims that he used two anti-tank mines to blow up his car. The man on camera says that he repents of his deed.
Some time after the publication of the video with Permyakov, the attempt on Prilepin was commented on by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). A representative of the press service of the department, in a commentary to Ukrayinska Pravda , said that he could neither confirm nor deny the involvement of the SBU in the explosion:
“Officially, we can neither confirm nor deny the involvement of the SBU in this or that cotton that happens to the occupiers and their henchmen. At the same time, as the head of the SBU, Vasily Malyuk, repeatedly noted earlier, for the Russians who brought war, loss of life and violence to our land, cotton burned, burns and will burn! Therefore, death is the only prospect we can offer the occupiers. We will be able to talk about who is behind this or that case after our victory. Which is definitely coming soon."
On May 6, in the Bora region of the Nizhny Novgorod region, a car with Prilepin was blown up . Pro-Kremlin media also reported that inside was a 27-year-old native of Lugansk, Alexander Shubin, who fought on the side of the “LPR”. He died, while Prilepin himself survived, allegedly being seriously wounded. Later, Russian news agencies reported that he had been put into a medically induced coma. The Russian Foreign Ministry blamed the Ukrainian authorities and "their Western patrons, primarily the United States" for the assassination attempt on Prilepin.