High-ranking Russian general killed in Moscow car bombing
Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff's operational training department, was killed in a car bombing in Moscow on Dec. 22, Russia's Investigative Committee said.
An explosive device attached to the underside of the lieutenant general's car detonated in the morning on Yaseneva Street in Moscow. Sarvarov was taken to the hospital but later died from his injuries.
Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case into the killing and that investigators and forensic experts were working at the scene. Security forces were also examining the site, interviewing witnesses, and reviewing CCTV footage.
Investigators are considering multiple lines of inquiry, including a possible link to Ukrainian special services, the committee said.
The Kyiv Independent cannot independently verify the Russian Investigative Committee's claims.
Sarvarov was appointed head of the Russian Armed Forces' operational training department in 2016. Sarvarov previously served in Syria from 2015 to 2016.
Ukraine has not been officially linked to the car bombing and is yet to comment, though Kyiv has previously targeted Russian officials involved in Moscow's full-scale invasion.
Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian Armed Forces' radiation, chemical, and biological defense troops, was killed in an explosion at a residence in Moscow in December 2024, a source in the Security Service of Ukraine told the Kyiv Independent.
Mikhail Shatsky, a Russian expert involved in modernizing missiles launched against Ukraine, was shot dead near Moscow on Dec. 12, 2024, a Defense Forces source told the Kyiv Independent.
Aleksey Kolomeitsev, a Russian colonel who trained specialists in the use of attack drones, was killed in the city of Kolomna in Moscow Oblast, Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) reported on Sept. 28, 2024.
