Headline: Russian General Killed in Moscow Car Bomb, Third Senior Officer Targeted in a Year.
A high-ranking Russian military officer, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, has been killed in a car bombing in Moscow, authorities confirmed on Monday. The explosion, caused by a device planted under his vehicle, left Sarvarov fatally injured; he later died in hospital.
Sarvarov, 56, headed the armed forces’ operational training department. He had previously served in combat during the Ossetian-Ingush conflict and the Chechen wars in the 1990s and early 2000s, and commanded operations in Syria between 2015 and 2016.
The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a formal investigation into Sarvarov’s murder and illegal handling of explosives. Officials say one line of inquiry involves possible involvement by Ukrainian intelligence, although Ukraine has not commented. Investigators were dispatched to the scene, a car park near an apartment complex in southern Moscow. Photographs show a heavily damaged white Kia Sorento with its doors blown off, amid other damaged vehicles.
Sarvarov’s death marks the third assassination of a senior military figure in Moscow in the past year. Last April, General Yaroslav Moskalik died in a car bombing, and in December 2024, General Igor Kirillov was killed by a device hidden in a scooter. In 2022, Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent nationalist and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, was also killed in a suspected car bombing.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of Sarvarov’s death. While some media reports suggest Ukrainian involvement in previous killings, Ukraine maintains a policy of not officially claiming responsibility for such operations.
