Blast in Ukraine capital wounds lawmaker, kills bodyguard

The blast took place near the entrance to internet television station Espresso, injuring Ihor Mosiychuk, a lawmaker with the nationalist Radical Party.

An explosion in Ukraine’s capital Kiev has killed two people and wounded five others including a member of parliament, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

In this photo released by Radical party Press Servise, a medic gives first aid to lawmaker Igor Mosiychuk, who was injured in an explosion in Kiev. (AP)

The blast happened late Wednesday near the entrance to the internet television station Espresso where Ihor Mosiychuk, a lawmaker with the nationalist Radical Party, was making an appearance.

The explosion injured five people, including Mosiychuk, and killed his bodyguard and a passer-by.

The bomb was planted under a scooter parked outside the television studio, said Olena Gitlyanska, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Security Service. Gitlyanska said investigators were looking into all possible theories. Ukrainian authorities rushed to call the latest bombing an act of terrorism.

In a message on Facebook from the hospital where he is being treated, Mosiychuk said he suspects Russia was behind the bombing.

Mosiychuk was a commander of the Azov Battalion, a volunteer regiment that fought Russia-backed separatists in southeastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for police to solve the “bloody and cruel crime” as soon as possible.

The blast is the latest in a series of targeted bombings in Kiev this year. In June, a bomb planted under a car has killed a senior Ukrainian military intelligence officer.