Russian General Killed In Moscow Car Bomb As Attacks On Senior Officers Continue

A senior Russian military officer was killed in a car bombing in Moscow on Monday, with Russian authorities blaming Ukraine for what they describe as another targeted assassination of a top commander.

Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, who headed the armed forces’ operational training department, was killed Monday morning when an explosive device planted beneath a vehicle detonated, according to a statement from Russia’s investigative committee.

“Investigators are pursuing various motives for the murder. One of the theories is that the crime was organized by Ukrainian special services,” the committee said.

The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “immediately informed” of Sarvarov’s death through special services channels.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a number of high-profile Russians have been killed in Moscow by shootings or explosive devices, attacks that Russian officials have repeatedly attributed to Ukrainian security services.

Footage broadcast by Russian state media on Monday showed a severely damaged car sitting in a parking area in a middle-class Moscow neighborhood.

According to the state news agency TASS, Sarvarov had led the military’s training department for nine years. The 56-year-old previously “carried out the tasks of organizing and conducting an operation in Syria,” during Russia’s military support for the Assad regime, TASS reported.

The killing adds to a growing list of senior Russian officers targeted in Moscow. Among them was Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the General Staff’s main operational department, who was killed in a car bomb attack near Moscow in April.

Last year, Igor Kirillov, the general overseeing Russia’s nuclear and chemical weapons protection forces, was killed when an explosive device hidden on a scooter detonated near a residential building. Ukraine quickly claimed responsibility for that assassination.

Other victims have included Armen Sarkisyan, the founder of a pro-Russian militia group described by Ukraine as a “criminal mastermind,” who died after a bombing in central Moscow earlier this year.

Several prominent political and pro-war figures have also been killed, including nationalist figure Darya Dugina in 2022 and influential military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who died in a café bombing in St. Petersburg in April 2023.