A Russian general was killed in Moscow after a car bomb detonated, authorities said on Monday. According to Russian media, an explosive device attached beneath a Kia Sorento went off at around 7 a.m. as Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was leaving the courtyard of a residential building on Yasenevskaya Street in the south-east of the capital. Reports said he was taken to hospital.
Sarvarov, who headed the Directorate of Operational Training of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, later died of his injuries, the Investigative Committee said in a statement. President Vladimir Putin was informed of the incident, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The attack came as Russian forces continue their slow advance on the battlefield nearly four years after the war began. Putin has previously signalled that he has little interest in ending the conflict on terms other than his own, insisting that Moscow’s most hardline demands should form the basis of any peace negotiations.
The Investigative Committee, which handles probes into serious crimes, said it is considering the possibility that the attack that killed Sarvarov was linked to Ukraine’s security services.
It was the third such killing of a senior Russian officer connected to the invasion of Ukraine in Moscow over the past year. In April, Major General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff, was killed under similar circumstances. Last December, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection troops, died after a bomb planted in an electric scooter exploded. A Ukrainian official said last year that Ukraine’s security services were responsible for Kirillov’s death.