Russian general killed in Moscow car bomb attack

By Newsflash Writer

A senior Russian military officer has been killed in a car bomb explosion in Moscow, authorities have confirmed.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov died on Monday morning after an explosive device planted beneath a vehicle detonated.

Sarvarov, 56, was the head of the armed forces’ operational training department, the committee said.

Officials noted that one theory under investigation is the possible involvement of Ukrainian intelligence services in planting the bomb. Ukraine has not commented on the allegation.

The committee said Sarvarov later died in hospital from his injuries and that an investigation had been opened into murder and the illegal trafficking of explosives. Investigators and forensic experts were dispatched to the scene, a car park near an apartment block in the southern part of the Russian capital.

Badly damaged car

Images circulating from the area show a badly damaged white car, with its doors blown out, surrounded by other parked vehicles.

According to Russian media reports, Sarvarov previously took part in combat operations during the Ossetian–Ingush conflict and the Chechen wars in the 1990s and early 2000s. He also led military operations in Syria between 2015 and 2016.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was informed of Sarvarov’s death immediately.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a number of military officials and other high-profile individuals have been targeted in Moscow.

In 2022, Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent nationalist figure and close ally of Putin, was killed in a suspected car bombing.

General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car bomb attack last April, while General Igor Kirillov died in December 2024 after a device hidden in a scooter was detonated remotely.

A Ukrainian source later told the BBC that Kirillov was killed by Ukraine’s security service, though this was never confirmed on the record. As a matter of policy, Ukraine does not officially admit or claim responsibility for targeted attacks.