MOSCOW — A powerful explosive planted beneath a car killed a senior Russian general in Moscow on Monday, marking the third assassination of a top military officer in just over a year and deepening tensions as Russia’s war with Ukraine drags on.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, died from his injuries after the blast, according to Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee. Authorities said an explosive device had been placed under his vehicle and detonated as he approached or entered it.
Petrenko said investigators are pursuing multiple leads and have not ruled out Ukrainian involvement. “One of the versions being examined is that the crime was organized by Ukrainian intelligence services,” she said.
Since Russia launched its full-scale military offensive against Ukraine nearly four years ago, Russian officials have repeatedly accused Kyiv of orchestrating targeted killings of military officers and prominent figures on Russian soil. Ukraine has acknowledged responsibility for some past attacks but had not commented on Sarvarov’s death as of Monday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of the killing. In a brief statement, Russia’s Defense Ministry noted that Sarvarov had combat experience in Chechnya and had also taken part in Moscow’s military campaign in Syria.
The killing follows a series of similar attacks that have rattled Russian security agencies. Just over a year ago, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow. His assistant also died in that blast. Ukraine’s security service later claimed responsibility, and an Uzbek national was arrested and charged with carrying out the attack on Kyiv’s behalf.
At the time, Putin called Kirillov’s death a “major blunder” by Russian security services, urging them to learn from the incident and strengthen their effectiveness.
Another senior officer, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the General Staff’s main operational department, was killed in April when an explosive device detonated in his car near his apartment just outside Moscow. Authorities quickly detained a suspect in that case as well.
Days after Moskalik’s death, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had received a report from the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service about the “liquidation” of senior Russian military figures, adding that “justice inevitably comes,” though he did not mention Moskalik by name.
With Sarvarov’s killing, the latest in a string of targeted bombings, fears are growing in Moscow that the conflict with Ukraine is increasingly spilling beyond the battlefield into a covert campaign of assassinations deep inside Russia.