RUSSIA PROBES UKRAINE LINK AFTER BOMB KILLS LIEUTENANT GENERAL SARVAROV

Mon 22 December 2025:

A ‍Russian general has been killed by a car bomb in southern Moscow, investigators ⁠say, adding that they suspected Ukrainian special services could have ‍been behind the attack.

The bomb exploded under the Kia Sorento driven ‍by Lieutenant General ⁠Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff’s army operational training directorate, as he left a parking space at 6:55am Moscow time (03:55 GMT).

Russia’s State Investigative ‌Committee said that Sarvarov died as a result of his injuries. It added ne of the versions being investigated is that the ‌bomb was planted by Ukrainian special services.

There was no immediate ‍comment from Ukraine.

Bomb that killed Russian general planted under car

Investigators say a car was blown up in the south of Moscow earlier today, and inside that car was the head of the operational training department of the General Staff of the Russian army, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov.

He died at the scene. According to the investigation, an explosive device had been installed under the car which exploded just a few metres after starting to move.

Sarvarov was reportedly found in a serious condition first and moments later, he died. Shrapnel damaged seven other cars parked nearby.

Now the Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case on murder and illegal trafficking of explosive substances. According to the committee, they are working on various versions of this murder, and one of them is related to the organisation of the murder by Ukrainian special services.

Sarvarov was 56 years old. According to publicly available information, he previously served in Chechnya and also carried out tasks during the operation of the Russian forces in Syria.

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In December last year, a similar attack also took place in Moscow, near the residential building where the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, Igor Kirilov, and his driver were killed.

“We absolutely didn’t expect it. We thought we were safe, and then this happens right next to us,” Tatiana, 74, told the AFP news agency.

“The windows rattled. You could tell it was an explosion,” Grigory, 70, who also declined to give his surname, told AFP. “We need to treat it more calmly. It’s the cost of war.”

AFP said its reporters at the scene saw a mangled white Kia SUV with its doors and back window blown out. The frame was twisted and charred from the blast, they said.

The area was cordoned off by security forces, and investigators were sifting through the debris.

Back then, the explosive device was mounted on a scooter standing near the entrance to that building. The Ukrainian intelligence services were said to be behind that murder.

Meanwhile, US special envoy Steve Witkoff has hailed talks on ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine as “productive and constructive” after holding separate meetings with Ukrainian, European and Russian negotiators in the US state of Florida.

The talks in Miami on Sunday were the latest in a series of meetings involving the US, Russia and Ukraine on a plan touted by US President Donald Trump to end the nearly four-year war.

Despite the optimism from the US, there have been no clear signals of imminent resolutions to key hurdles, including who will control the Ukrainian territory Russia has seized during the conflict.

Witkoff, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Saturday, held talks on Sunday with officials from Ukraine and Europe. He then held separate talks with the Ukrainian delegation, led by senior official Rustem Umerov.

Killing of Russian general signals Ukrainian strategy ‘to instil fear in military leadership’

Maria Miron, analyst at the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London, says the killing of the high-ranking Russian military official is part of Ukraine’s strategy to instil fear in Russia’s military leaders as it struggles to counter Russian troops on the front lines.

“This is a direct message to the rest of the generals and specifically to the top of the Russian military brass to create fear because this is an assassination. This is not someone killed on the battlefield,” Miron told Al Jazeera.

“For Ukraine, it is a way to show its strengths because this is a mode of warfare which would be referred to as ‘irregular’, given the fact that Ukraine is suffering setbacks on the battlefield,” the analyst said.

According to Miron, this is why Ukrainian intelligence agencies have been proactive in conducting attacks on Russian facilities, oil refineries and high-profile generals on Russian territory.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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