A courier delivered a package to the home of Andrei Pinchuk in New Moscow, triggering an explosion, the Russian state news agency TASS said, citing law enforcement. Pinchuk served as security minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (“DNR”) from 2014 to 2015.

The explosion occurred after a courier delivered the package to Pinchuk’s home.

According to the Telegram channel Shot, which is linked to Russian law enforcement, Pinchuk’s home is in the town of Shchapovo. He escaped serious injury, having taken cover behind an armored door. His family was elsewhere at the time, he said. Pinchuk told Baza, a Telegram channel linked to Russian security services, that he suffered a minor concussion. TASS said his life is not in danger.

Pinchuk is a retired FSB colonel. In the early 2000s, he worked in the security ministry of the unrecognized breakaway republic of Transnistria, and later fought in the Donbas on the side of pro-Russian separatists. On July 17, 2014, Pinchuk became the first security minister of the self-proclaimed DNR, a post he held until March 1, 2015. Pinchuk is one of the leaders of the Donetsk Volunteers Union, an interregional civic organization. Pinchuk fought in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.