A woman charged over the bombing of a Russian cafe last April which killed a prominent military blogger has been sentenced to 27 years.

Darya Trepova, 26, allegedly killed  Vladlen Tatarsky, a pro-war military blogger who regularly reported from the frontlines in Ukraine.

Ms Trepova was arrested after being seen in a video presenting Mr Tatarsky with a bust of himself, moments before the explosion at a riverside cafe where he was leading a discussion.

The blast killed him and injured 50 others.

She later claimed in court she didn’t know the bust contained a bomb, according to reports in Russian media, and said she was acting upon instructions from two men who told her there was a listening and tracking device inside.

Russian authorities have blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for orchestrating the bombing.

Kyiv has not directly responded to the accusation, but an adviser of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the bombing as part of Russia’s internal turmoil.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said a Ukrainian citizen identified as Yuriy Denysov supplied Ms Trepova with the explosives through a courier service, acting on orders from the Ukrainian security services.

Tatarsky was the pen name of Maxim Fomin, who had hundreds of thousands of followers on his Telegram messaging app channel.

He had joined separatists in eastern Ukraine after a Moscow-backed insurgency erupted there in 2014 and fought on the frontlines for years before turning to blogging.

Military bloggers have played an increasingly prominent role in Russia amid the fighting in Ukraine, supporting the Kremlin but often criticising Russia’s military leadership for perceived flaws.

Unlike independent media or opposition figures, they have not faced punishment for that criticism.

On January 19, timber truck driver Ruslan Zinin, 26, was sentenced to 19 years jail after opening fire in September 2022 at the military enlistment office in Ust-Ilimsk, a town more than 5,000 kilometres west of Moscow. 

AP