A high-ranking Russian military general has been killed today in a suspected car bomb explosion in Moscow, officials report.
Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, died after a device beneath his car detonated on Monday morning, Russia’s Investigative Committee has said.
Rescuers at the scene reported that he was alive but wounded. Sarvarov then died in hospital as a result of his injuries.
The committee added that possible Ukrainian involvement is being investigated. The Ukrainian government has not commented.
The Kremlin military enforcer was driving to work in his Kia Sorento when a massive blast rang out in the Yasenevo district, south west Moscow.
Images from the car park show a damaged white car with its doors blown out. A major operation was reportedly needed to free Sarvarov from the mangled vehicle.
His wife rushed to the scene of the 7am explosion but was initially ‘not allowed to see her trapped and wounded husband,’ said reports.
Sarvarov served as the head of operational training for Vladimir Putin’s armed forces. The Russian president was informed of his death immediately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Sarvarov reportedly sufferedmultiple shrapnel injuries, closed fractures, leg injuries, and a fractured facial bone.
‘He is in a very serious condition and is being hospitalised,’ reports said before he died.
Seven other cars were also damaged by the force of the blast.
‘At first, we thought a drone had been shot down,’ one local said.
‘There was an explosion, but there was no fire.’
The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into the blast. A spokesperson said: ‘A number of examinations, including medical and explosive examinations, will be scheduled soon.’
It has previously been suggested that Ukraine was behind assassinations of Russia’s senior military figures – since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
US intelligence believed that Ukraine authorised the car bomb that killed the daughter of Russian nationalist Aleksandr Dugin in August 2022.
More recently, Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, 54, died in a blast as he left his apartment building in 2024. He had been in charge of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological defence troops.
Major General Yaroslav Moskalik, 58, also died when a Volkswagen Golf exploded as he walked past it near his residence in April this year.
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