A car bomb killed a Russian general on Monday, the third such killing of a top military officer in a year. Investigators said Ukraine could be behind the attack.
Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, died from his wounds, said Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s main criminal investigation agency.
This undated image provided by the Press Service of the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday, December 22, 2025, shows Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
Russian Defense Ministry press service via AP
“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of inquiry into the murder. One of them is that the crime was orchestrated by the Ukrainian intelligence services,” Petrenko said.
This image taken from a video provided by the Moscow Investigative Committee on Monday, December 22, 2025 shows the scene in which Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was killed by an explosive device placed under his car in Moscow.
Moscow Investigative Committee via AP
Since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine nearly four years ago, Russian authorities have blamed Ukraine for several murders of military officers and public figures in Russia. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of them. He has not yet commented on Monday’s death.
Get daily national news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of Sarvarov’s murder.
The Defense Ministry said Sarvarov had previously fought in Chechnya and participated in Moscow’s military campaign in Syria.
Just over a year ago, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside his apartment building. Kirillov’s assistant also died. Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for the attack.
An Uzbek man was quickly arrested and accused of killing Kirillov on behalf of the Ukrainian security service.
Putin described Kirillov’s killing as a “big mistake” made by Russian security agencies, saying they should learn from it and improve their efficiency.
In April, another senior Russian military officer, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational department of the General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car parked near his apartment building on the outskirts of Moscow. An alleged perpetrator was quickly arrested.
Days after Moskalik’s assassination, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he received a report from the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence agency about the “liquidation” of senior Russian military figures, adding that “justice inevitably comes,” although he did not mention Moskalik by name.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
