A 36-year-old refugee from Odessa Region in Ukraine has been arrested in the Czech Republic after allegedly detonating a pyrotechnic device inside his wife, according to local media.
Police in Pilsen Region filed criminal charges on Tuesday against the man identified only as Aleksandr S., for inflicting “grievous bodily harm,” Czech outlet Krimi-Plzen reported. He is accused of beating up his wife, then inserting a firecracker into her intimate area, where it detonated and caused her significant injury.
The incident happened on Sunday at a hostel in Kozlany, a village west of Prague. The victim was not identified by name, but police said she was born in Moldova in 1988.
The explosion caused “very serious” internal injuries and the woman began to bleed profusely, according to Krimi-Plzen. The man drove her to the Lochotin University Hospital in Pilsen, where she underwent life-saving surgery.
She is still in the hospital in critical condition, and is “certain to suffer life-long consequences if she survives,” the outlet noted, calling it “an absolutely terrible crime, which defies any human understanding.”
Aleksandr reportedly told the doctors the woman’s injury was due to a blow to the abdomen. The hospital staff did not believe him, however, and alerted the authorities. If convicted, the man faces ten years behind bars.
Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country since February 2022, when the conflict with Russia escalated. The Czech Republic is currently hosting almost 350,000 refugees, the most per capita inside the EU.
The government in Kiev recently said it opposed treating the displaced Ukrainians as refugees, demanding that EU countries not create integration programs for them. Ukraine has also called for the extradition of men subject to conscription who fled abroad. The Czech Republic has rejected that request, along with Germany, Austria, and Hungary.
