A humorous yet troubling moment emerged when a deputy from the Russian State Duma posed for a self-portrait amid the bombardment of occupied Luhansk, and ended up injured. The scene unfolded not as a direct victim of fighting, but as a man caught by a falling fragment while his fiery remarks played against a burning backdrop.
Victim of a brick wall
Viktor Vodolatsky, a deputy in the Russian Duma from the United Russia party, sustained injuries during the shelling of Lugansk on a recent Friday.
– reports from the Interfax news agency, relayed with urgency by representatives of the so-called Lugansk People’s Republic, noted the incident.
The independent outlet Meduza identified Wodołacki as the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eurasian Integration.
He is known for backing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and appears on sanction lists maintained by the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and several other states.
The footage circulating on social media showed the deputy emerging from the rubble of a missile-struck building, aided by firefighters, with injuries to his head suggesting a severe blow from the blast.
Yet it quickly became clear that the deputy was not a direct casualty of combat. He chose to perform in front of the burning ruin, delivering a passionate speech to the camera as a second impact seemed imminent near the end of his message, according to a Telegram post cited in coverage.
Wodołacki later acknowledged that a shard of a brick wall had fallen on him, explaining the injuries as incidental to the collapse rather than to any ongoing fighting.
Explosions in Lugansk
That same Friday evening witnessed two powerful blasts in the Russian-occupied city of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine. The first blast struck a factory repurposed by occupying forces as a supply hub. A second explosion occurred at an oil warehouse nearby.
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Source: wPolityce