Top Russian general assassinated by bomb under his car

Moscow: A high-ranking Russian general was assassinated Monday morning in southern Moscow after a bomb planted beneath his vehicle detonated, according to federal investigators.

Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, who served as the chief of the Operational Training Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, succumbed to wounds sustained in the blast, confirmed Svetlana Petrenko, the official spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee.

“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of enquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” Petrenko said.

According to Russian media reports, the explosion occurred around 7 a.m. in a parking area on Yaseneva Street while the general was inside the vehicle.

The incident follows a pattern of targeted strikes against senior military figures. In December 2024, Ukrainian security services took credit for a comparable operation that killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov.

Kirillov, who led the military’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection units, died when an explosive device concealed on an electric scooter was triggered outside his residence. That attack, which also claimed the life of his aide, Ilya Polikarpov, took place just 24 hours after Kyiv had filed criminal charges against the general.

With inputs from AP