A Russian general was killed in a car bombing in Moscow, and officials are blaming Ukraine for recent assassinations of military officials.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvalov, who headed the military’s operational training department, was killed on Monday morning when an explosive device placed under the chassis of his car detonated.
“Investigators are pursuing various motives for the murder. One of the theories is that the crime was organized by Ukrainian special forces,” the commission added.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “immediately informed” of Sarvarov’s murder through a special agency.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, several prominent Russians have been killed with explosives or shot in Moscow in attacks blamed on Ukrainian security services.
A video released by Russian state media on Monday showed a badly damaged vehicle in a parking lot in a middle-class district of Moscow.
Sarvarov had been the head of the training department for nine years, state news agency TASS said. According to TASS, he previously “carried out the task of organizing and carrying out operations in Syria” when Russian forces were supporting the Assad regime.
Among the senior Russian officers killed in Moscow was Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the operations department of the General Staff, who was the victim of a car bomb attack near Moscow in April.
A year ago, Igor Kirillov, commander of the Russian military’s nuclear and chemical weapons protection unit, was killed when an explosive device on his scooter detonated near the entrance to his home.
Ukraine immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination.
Others killed included Armen Sarkissyan, the founder of a pro-Russian militia who was killed after a bombing in central Moscow in February, whom Ukraine described as a “criminal mastermind.”
Several prominent politicians died in 2022, including Darya Dugina, a leading figure in the Russian nationalist movement. Influential pro-war blogger Vladren Tatarsky was killed in a St. Petersburg cafe bombing in April 2023.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
