A senior Russian military officer, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, was killed on Monday after an explosive device detonated beneath his car in southern Moscow, Russian investigators have said.
In a statement, Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed that it had opened a criminal probe into the “murder” of Sarvarov, who headed the training department within the Russian General Staff.
The committee said investigators were examining several possible motives, including the likelihood that the attack was linked to Ukrainian special forces.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a number of Russian military officials and pro-Kremlin figures have been targeted in deadly attacks both inside Russia and in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, with Kyiv often blamed by Moscow.
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In April, General Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the General Staff, was killed in a car bomb attack near Moscow. In December 2024, Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s radiological, chemical and biological defence forces, was killed when an explosive device attached to an electric scooter detonated in the capital, an attack later claimed by Ukraine’s SBU security service.
Earlier attacks have also included the killing of Russian military blogger Maxim Fomin in April 2023, when an explosive device hidden in a statuette detonated at a café in Saint Petersburg. In August 2022, Daria Dugina, the daughter of ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed by a car bomb near Moscow.
Monday’s killing adds to a growing list of high-profile assassinations linked to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.