Second car bomb in two days hits Moscow as Dublin peace talks push on

Sergei Zavorotny was behind the wheel when his car exploded in Moscow on Friday morning, Russia's Investigative Committee said. He was rushed to a city hospital for treatment.

The committee said investigators are carrying out examinations, including medical and explosives tests. Unconfirmed Russian reports claim Zavorotny lost his left arm and suffered a brain injury, broken ribs and injuries to his right leg.

Zavorotny had worked as an aide to Mykola Azarov, Ukraine's pro-Putin former prime minister, until Azarov resigned in 2014 and fled to Russia. His bombing came a day after a car explosion in Saint Petersburg's Pushkinsky District killed a member of the Russian military. Moscow calls the blasts the latest in a string of attacks on pro-Kremlin figures.

The war kept raging overnight. Ukrainian authorities said a hospital was targeted by Russian bombardment, and that three people — including a 17-year-old boy — were killed in attacks across southern Odesa and Zaporizhzhia. Russia said a Ukrainian strike on an industrial facility in the central Samara region killed four people, while another four died when drones hit an industrial zone in the southern Volgograd region. One more person was killed in the Bryansk border region. Ukraine describes its strikes as retaliation for Russia's persistent targeting of its cities.

The violence ran alongside informal peace talks at a military airbase in Dublin. US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff had earlier met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and on Thursday Kushner said the Russian president was willing to accept European input in the process. On Friday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Europe's voice cannot be limited to EU member states — opening the door for the UK to take a role. Zelensky has welcomed the pledge of European involvement.

UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell had been due to join Zelensky, Witkoff and Kushner in Dublin, but Downing Street said hours later that the meetings had been delayed, meaning Powell could no longer attend. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and roughly a fifth of the country is now under occupation.