Russian general killed in Moscow car bomb

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A Russian general has been killed by a car bomb in Moscow, the country’s authorities said on Monday.

An explosive device attached beneath a Kia Sorento went off at about 7am as Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was driving out of the courtyard of a residential building on Yasenevaya Street in south-east Moscow, according to Russian media reports.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said that Sarvarov, who was the head of the operational training directorate of the general staff of the Russian Armed Forces, died from his injuries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the incident, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

The attack comes as Russian forces continue to slowly advance on the battlefield nearly four years into the war. Putin has indicated that he is not interested in ending the war on any terms other than his own, insisting last week that Russia’s most hardline demands form the basis for any peace talks.

The Investigative Committee, a major crimes unit, said authorities were examining the possibility that the attack that killed Sarvarov was linked to Ukrainian security services.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the country’s military intelligence (HUR) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The attack is the latest in a series of killings of military figures and prominent war supporters after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It marks the third time in the past year that senior Russian officers linked to the invasion have been killed in bomb attacks in Moscow.

In April, Major General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operations directorate of Russia’s General Staff, was killed in similar circumstances to Sarvarov.

In December last year, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s nuclear, chemical and biological defence forces, died in an explosion caused by a bomb placed on a scooter. A Ukrainian official said last year that the country’s security services were responsible for Kirillov’s killing.

Other high-profile cases include the August 2022 car-bomb killing of propagandist Darya Dugina, the daughter of a leading war ideologue. In April 2023, pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky died in a St Petersburg café blast.

In both cases, Russian authorities accused Ukraine of involvement, while Kyiv denied any role.

In July 2023, Black Sea submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky was shot dead while running in Krasnodar.

Additional reporting by Fabrice Deprez