A senior Russian military officer has been killed in a car bombing in Moscow, with Russian authorities accusing Ukraine of being behind the attack.
Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov, head of the armed forces’ operational training department, died after an explosive device planted under his car detonated on Monday morning, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.
Investigators said several motives are being examined, including the possibility that the killing was carried out by Ukrainian special services. The Kremlin confirmed that President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of Sarvarov’s death through security channels.
State media footage showed a severely damaged vehicle in a parking area in a middle-class district of Moscow. Sarvarov, 56, had led the military training department for nine years and was previously involved in coordinating Russian military operations in Syria in support of the Assad regime.
His death is the latest in a series of targeted killings of prominent Russians since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Several senior officers and pro-war figures have been assassinated in bombings or shootings, many of which Russia has blamed on Ukrainian intelligence services.
Recent victims include Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, killed in a car bomb attack near Moscow in April, and Igor Kirillov, who died last year when an explosive device attached to a scooter detonated near a residential building — an attack Ukraine later claimed responsibility for.
Other high-profile deaths include militia leader Armen Sarkisyan and nationalist figure Darya Dugina, as well as pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed in a café bombing in St Petersburg in 2023.
