MOSCOW (AP) — A car bomb killed a Russian general on Monday. The third killing of a senior military officer In a year. Investigators said Ukraine may be behind the attack.
Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, said that Lieutenant-General Vanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, died of his wounds.
“Investigators are pursuing several lines of investigation in connection with the murder. One of them is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” Petrenko said.
Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine nearly four years ago, Russian authorities have blamed Ukraine Several assassinations Military officers and public figures in Russia. Ukraine claimed responsibility for some of them. She has not yet commented on Monday’s death.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of Sarvarov’s killing.
The Defense Ministry said that Sarfarov had previously fought in Chechnya and participated in Moscow’s military campaign in Syria.
A little more than a year ago, Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, head of the army’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, took office. killing With a bomb hidden on an electric motorcycle outside his building. Kirillov’s assistant also died. Security Service of Ukraine He claimed responsibility for the attack.
An Uzbek man was soon arrested and charged with Kirilov’s murder on behalf of the Ukrainian Security Service.
Putin described Kirillov’s killing as a “huge mistake” committed by the Russian security services, noting that they must learn from him and work to improve their efficiency.
In April, another senior Russian military officer, Lieutenant-General Yaroslav Moskalyk, deputy head of the Main Operations Department of the General Staff, was killed by an explosive device planted in his car parked near his building outside Moscow. The suspected perpetrator was quickly arrested.
Days after Moskalyk’s killing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had received a report from the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Agency about the “liquidation” of senior Russian military figures, adding that “justice will inevitably come” although he did not mention Moskalyk’s name.