Would-be assassin blows himself up attempting to plant bomb under Ukrainian agent's car

Car bomb continues run of violence in Ukrainian cities far away from eastern frontlines

A bomb exploded in a Kiev supermarket carpark on Thursday morning in an apparent attempt on the life of a Ukrainian intelligence agent – but which instead left the would-be assassin without a hand.

In CCTV released by local media, a man is seen walking up to a black Chevrolet car. He disappears behind the car, and a few seconds later a blast throws the car half a metre up into the air in a cloud of smoke.

A journalist associated with Ukrainian security services suggested that the man had been trying to kill the owner of the car, an intelligence officer working in eastern Ukraine.

“He tried to plant a bomb, but the device went off prematurely,” Yury Butusov wrote on Facebook.

The assailant, who is now in hospital, is understood to be a citizen of the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. But Mr Butusov alleged he was working on Moscow’s orders.

“The war with Russia continues, and the frontline is here, right in the capital,” he wrote, without citing evidence. The authorities in Moscow are yet to comment on the case.

Ukraine has witnessed a marked up-tick of violence in recent years. And many of the attacks – carried out with guns and explosives – have happened in cities far away from the conflict zone.

Military and intelligence officers have been regular targets. Over one year alone between 2016 and 2017, there were seven deaths.

In March 2017, an assassin killed Denis Voronenkov, a former Russian parliamentarian who had defected to Ukraine; the assassin was then killed by the MP’s bodyguard.

That was preceded in July 2016 with the car bomb killing of Pavlo Sheremet, a Russian-Belarusian journalist.

More often than not, authorities have blamed Russia for the attacks, usually without conclusive evidence or exhaustive investigation to back up their claims. In at least some of the cases, there seem to be simpler, mafia-related explanations.

The probe into Mr Sheremet's death was spectacularly unenthusiastic, missing out interviewing key witnesses.

When independent journalists stepped in, they discovered that a Ukrainian agent had been at the scene when the bomb was planted.