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Russian politician Dmitry Rogozin, former head of the state space agency and a fervent supporter of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said he has sent a French-made artillery fragment extracted from a wound he suffered while in occupied Donetsk to Paris’ ambassador to Moscow.
Rogozin claims the shell fragment came from a French artillery device, a 155mm Caesar cannon. He said he sent the piece to the French ambassador to Russia, Pierre Lévy, along with a letter, according to a message posted on a Telegram channel listed as his on his verified Twitter account.
The Telegram post, which is accompanied by pictures of both the letter and the shell fragment, shares an article from Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, which published extracts from Rogozin’s letter.
“I ask you to give the shrapnel cut out of my spine to the president of France, Emmanuel Macron,” Rogozin wrote according to the excerpts, adding he hoped the French representative understood “the extent of (his) personal responsibility” in the shelling that caused his injury.
Rogozin, the former director general of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, was injured on December 21 in the shelling of the hotel where he was staying in Russian-occupied Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region.
He confirmed his injury on Telegram the next day: “I have been wounded. Metal (shell) fragment 3×4 mm in size entered above my right shoulder blade. An operation is coming.”
Ukraine never claimed responsibility for the strike, but the Ukrainian border guard later published an ironic statement saying that Rogozin, a Russian citizen, had been “informed” that he was in Ukraine illegally.
France has sent 18 Caesar cannons — French truck-mounted howitzers — to Ukraine since the beginning of the war, where Macron said last October they had proven “decisive in the Donbas” region. During that same interview on French TV, Macron announced his country would deliver six new cannons.
Contacted by POLITICO, the French foreign ministry could not immediately provide a response to a request for comment.
Source: Politico
