A car bomb killed a Russian general in Moscow on Monday, marking the third such slaying of a senior military officer in just over a year, with investigators suggesting Ukrainian intelligence services could be involved.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, died from his injuries after an explosive device detonated under his car on Yaseneva Street, according to Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee.
“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of inquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” Petrenko said, the Associated Press reported.
The committee released a video showing a damaged white car in what appeared to be a residential area. A criminal case into the incident has been opened.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was immediately briefed on the killing.
Sarvarov had fought in Chechnya and participated in Russia’s military operations in Syria.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly four years ago, Moscow has attributed several assassinations of military officers and public figures to Kyiv. Ukraine has acknowledged some but has not commented on Sarvarov’s death.
In December 2024, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, chief of the military’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces, and his assistant were killed by a bomb on an electric scooter outside his apartment building. An Uzbek man was arrested and charged with carrying out the attack for Ukraine’s security service, which claimed responsibility.
Putin called Kirillov’s killing a “major blunder” by Russia’s security agencies, urging them to learn from it and boost efficiency.
In April, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff, died from an explosive device in his car near his apartment just outside Moscow. A suspect was soon arrested.
Days later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had received a report from the head of the country’s foreign intelligence agency on the “liquidation” of top Russian military figures, adding that “justice inevitably comes,” though he did not name Moskalik specifically.
Outnumbered by Russia’s larger forces, Ukraine has sought to shift the conflict through unconventional tactics. Last August, its troops launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, diverting Moscow’s resources and lifting Ukrainian spirits, even as Russian offensives pressed elsewhere. Moscow eventually expelled the invaders.
Ukraine has also struck the Russian navy in the Black Sea with drones and missiles, prompting relocations of warships and curtailed operations. In June, drone swarms from trucks hit bomber bases across Russia; Kyiv claimed over 40 long-range bombers were damaged or destroyed, while Moscow reported only several were affected.
