A Russian general was killed in Moscow Monday by a bomb planted on his car  — and local authorities say they think Ukrainian intelligence could be responsible.
The blast happened early Monday morning on Yaseneva Street in a middle-class neighborhood. Images from the scene showed officers and investigators establishing a perimeter around several damaged cars.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, 56, who heads the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, died of his wounds, authorities said.
He’s the third senior military leader killed in a bombing attack inside Russia this year.
“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of inquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee.
Savarov was a veteran of the war in Chechnya and took part in Moscow’s military campaign in Syria, Russia’s defense ministry said.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the bombing, and Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about Sarvarov’s death, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Kyiv did, however, take responsibility for a similar bombing last December in which Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection force was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter a day after Kyiv leveled criminal charges against him.
Putin called Kirillov’s killing a “severe blunder,” and said Russian special services must redouble their efforts to prevent similar attacks moving forward.
In April, Russian military officer Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik also died in a car bombing in Moscow, after which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had been briefed about the successful “liquidation” of Russian military leaders, but did not directly mention Moskalik.
The latest bombing targeting the upper echelons of Russia’s military comes amid tenuous peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US, with Russian officials saying the negotiations were advancing “constructively” despite recent missile attacks in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.
Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency said Monday it destroyed a pair of fighter jets in an attack on an airfield this past weekend in Russia’s Lipetsk region, not far from the Ukrainian border.
Russian and Ukrainian officials have been traveling to the US in recent weeks to meet with President Trump’s envoys in an attempt to hammer out an agreement to bring about an end to the nearly four-year-old conflict.
However, the path to peace is far from assured. Russia’s continued territorial demands, coupled with Ukraine’s pushing for security guarantees from Western allies, have proven difficult obstacles to overcome.

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