Moscow: A Russian general was killed on Monday morning after an explosive device detonated under his car in Moscow, and investigators said Ukraine may be behind the attack, the third such killing of a senior military officer in a year.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Directorate of Operational Training of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, died of his injuries, said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, the nation’s top criminal investigative agency.
“Investigators are following multiple lines of inquiry into the murder. One of them is that the crime was organized by the Ukrainian intelligence services,” Petrenko said.
More than a year ago, on December 17, 2024, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building. Kirillov’s assistant also died. The Ukrainian security service claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Uzbek was quickly arrested and accused of killing Kirillov on behalf of the Ukrainian security services.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described Kirillov’s killing as a “big mistake” by Russian security agencies, saying they should learn from it and improve their effectiveness.
But in April. another senior Russian military officer, Lieutenant General Jaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the main operational department of the general staff, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car parked near his apartment building near Moscow. The suspected perpetrator was quickly apprehended.
Moscow has also blamed Ukraine for several bombings and other attacks in Russia.
