A senior Russian general has been killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow, officials have confirmed. Russia's Investigative Committee (SK) - the main federal investigating authority in the country - confirmed Gen Yaroslav Moskalik died when a Volkswagen Golf car exploded after an improvised explosive device stuffed with pellets went off. Local media reported that the car was parked next to the general's house in the eastern suburb of Balashikha and exploded as he walked past it. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the killing as a "terrorist attack", without providing further details, according to Russian Telegram channel Smotri.
The attack follows the killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who died on Dec. 17 when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office. The Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Kirillov, and Ukraine’s security agency acknowledged that it was behind that attack. Kirillov was the chief of Russia’s Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, the special troops tasked with protecting the military from the enemy’s use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment. Kirillov’s assistant also died in the attack. Friday’s bombing came just as U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, was expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss a U.S.-brokered peace plan for Ukraine. The meeting is their fourth encounter since February.
The bomb had been planted in a parked car and was detonated remotely as the officer, who lived nearby, walked past, law enforcement sources said. Footage captured a vehicle entirely engulfed in flames near an apartment building just moments after the explosion. Authorities haven’t officially confirmed any details of the incident, which comes a day after Russia launched its deadliest attack on Ukraine in almost a year. It also wasn’t immediately clear if the officer was targeted. Ukraine in the past has claimed responsibility for targeting Russian military officers on their home soil.
