Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of Roskosmos, was transported to a hospital in the Moscow region after being wounded in shelling near Donetsk. This update came on a Saturday, December 24, from the group of military advisers and from the deputy head of the Tsarskie Wolves scientific and technical center, a position Rogozin has held for some time. The report was carried by socialbites.ca and later echoed by other outlets.
According to the sources, Rogozin and two other military advisers who were injured in the Donetsk shelling were taken to medical facilities in the Moscow region. Officials indicated that within a few days Rogozin would undergo surgery to remove a fragment lodged near his spine. The information was provided by one of Rogozin’s aides, speaking to a Russian news agency.
Before the operation, Rogozin was reportedly planning to attend the farewell of his deceased assistant, Mikhail Bridasov. The same briefing noted that the condition of the other two wounded advisers remained serious in Donetsk, while a third was being treated in Rostov-on-Don. The room described Rogozin as having sustained a concussion and a gunshot wound that caused shrapnel damage above his right shoulder blade.
The aide described the injury as a penetrating wound, noting that a fragment measuring 8 by 6 millimeters entered above the shoulder blade near the spine. Miraculously, the fragment did not strike the lung. The aide also confirmed a concussion and said there were no other injuries reported at that time.
Telegraph channel Don Mash had suggested the day before that Rogozin’s condition was serious. The report also claimed that on December 23 the former Roscosmos chief could not be flown to Moscow from Rostov-on-Don due to weather. Contemporary coverage stressed the precarious nature of the evacuation routes under winter conditions and the challenges faced by medical crews in transporting wounded officials.
Rogozin himself had previously indicated that he expected to recover in the second half of January 2023. He noted that part of the bullet was unlikely to be removed, explaining that doctors in Donetsk and Rostov-on-Don did not dare perform such an operation at that time. After recovering, he signaled an intention to return to the Donbass region, describing it as a matter of personal honor and commitment to the ongoing situation there.
Earlier reporting, dated December 21, indicated that Ukrainian forces had attacked the Shesh-Besh hotel on the outskirts of Donetsk, where Rogozin and Vitaly Khotsenko, then head of the Donetsk People’s Republic government, were present and wounded. The strike caused civilian fatalities and injured several officials, including the head of the Gorlovka administration, Ivan Prikhodko. Rogozin later commented that someone may have leaked information about his location, fueling concerns about targeted strikes.
According to Rogozin’s aide, the attack appeared to be deliberate. State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlev, who was at the hotel, described the assault as having three direct hits based on preliminary observations, though he did not rule out that Khotsenko could have been the intended target because the raid occurred shortly after his arrival. Denis Pushilin, acting head of the DPR, characterized the fighting in the republic as routine, insisting that shelling can happen anywhere and at any time, and he cautioned against drawing overly definite conclusions about who was targeted. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation announced it would determine the circumstances surrounding the bombing of the hotel, signaling ongoing inquiries into the incident.