A powerful explosion occurred in central Moscow this morning (22 Dec), instantly killing Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, a senior Russian military officer, at the site of his car. Investigators are focusing on an assassination believed to be carried out by Ukrainian intelligence, following a series of similar attacks throughout the past year.
The Russian Investigative Committee confirmed that Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, director of the Operational Training Department of the Russian General Staff, died in an explosion in a parking lot in southern Moscow at around 07:00 local time on Monday.
Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for the Investigative Committee, stated that the explosive device had been placed under General Sarvarov's car and detonated while he was driving on Yaseneva Street. Authorities are urgently investigating all related angles, but the main focus is on "direction by Ukrainian intelligence."
This is not the first time a senior Russian officer has been targeted in central Moscow. Previously, in December 2024, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the nuclear, biological, and chemical defense forces, was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside his apartment. The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) admitted responsibility for that attack.
In April 2024, General Yaroslav Moskalyk, Deputy Chief of the Military General Staff, died from a car bomb near Moscow. Earlier, in April 2023, Maxim Fomin, a well-known military blogger, was killed by a bomb concealed in a statue inside a café in Saint Petersburg. In August 2022, Darya Dugina, daughter of extreme nationalist thinker Alexander Dugin, died in a car bomb attack.
Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has blamed Ukraine for attacks on key figures and military personnel both inside Russia and in occupied Ukrainian territories, although Ukraine has not always directly acknowledged responsibility.
The assassination of Lieutenant General Sarvarov marks another loss of a key intellectual asset for the Russian military and signals an intensification of the intelligence war and targeted killings amid a conflict showing no signs of ending.
,AP