A car bomb explosion on Monday killed a senior Russian army officer in Moscow in an operation that may have been orchestrated by Ukraine, Russian officials said.
The blast killed Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian General Staff, officials said.
“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of inquiry regarding the murder,” Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said in a statement. “One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services.”
Kyiv has been blamed for several attacks targeting Russian military officials and pro-Kremlin figures since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik died April 25 from a car bomb planted in a suburb of Moscow. According to Russian media reports, an improvised explosive device was remotely detonated while Moskalik, a deputy on the Russian General Staff, was passing by. The blast was reportedly powerful enough to shatter windows in nearby buildings.
Darya Dugina, a pro-Putin activist and daughter of Russian nationalist Aleksandr Dugin, was killed in a car bomb explosion near Moscow in August 2022. At the time, U.S. officials said they believed the attack was authorized by elements within the Ukrainian government.
