A Russian general has been killed in a car bombing in Moscow, authorities have confirmed, marking the latest in a series of high-profile attacks targeting senior figures in the Russian capital since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov died on Monday morning after an explosive device planted under a car detonated.
Sarvarov, 56, later succumbed to his injuries in hospital, investigators said.
He was the head of the armed forces’ operational training department.
The committee said it had opened a criminal case into murder and the illegal trafficking of explosives.
One of the theories under investigation, it added, is that the bombing may have been carried out with the involvement of Ukrainian intelligence services. Ukraine has not commented on the allegation.
Investigators were dispatched to the scene in a car park near an apartment block in the south of Moscow.
Images circulating from the area showed a badly damaged white vehicle with its doors blown out, surrounded by other parked cars.
According to Russian media reports, Sarvarov had a long military career, having taken part in combat operations during the Ossetian–Ingush conflict and the Chechen wars in the 1990s and early 2000s.
He was also reported to have led Russian military operations in Syria between 2015 and 2016.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was informed of Sarvarov’s death immediately.
The killing adds to a growing list of attacks against military officials and prominent figures in Moscow since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In August that year, Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent nationalist ideologue and Kremlin ally, was killed in a suspected car bombing.
More recently, General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car bomb attack last April, while General Igor Kirillov died in December 2024 when an explosive device hidden in a scooter was detonated remotely.
A Ukrainian source later told the BBC that Kirillov was killed by Ukraine’s security service, though this was never officially confirmed.
As a matter of policy, Ukraine does not publicly admit responsibility for targeted attacks.
