A high-ranking Russian military officer was killed today in a suspected car bomb explosion in Moscow.
Lt-Gen Fanil Sarvarov, 56, was head of the Department of Operational Training of Vladimir Putin’s armed forces.
The top brass commander was going to work at the Russian defence ministry in his Kia Sorento when it was hit by a massive blast in Yasenevo district.
The Russian authorities initially indicated the officer was gravely wounded, but later updated to confirm that he had died.
Sarvarov was last year personally promoted by Putin, and was known to have been close to Russia’s most senior general, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the defence staff.
Rescuers initially found the victim alive but wounded and trapped in the mangled vehicle.
There was immediate suspicion of a Ukrainian assassination bid against the high ranking officer.
His wife rushed to the scene at the 6:55am explosion but was initially ‘not allowed to see her trapped and wounded husband’.
An early report said the general suffered ‘multiple shrapnel injuries, closed fractures, leg injuries, and a fractured facial bone’ in the 6:55am blast.
‘He is in a very serious condition and is being hospitalised.’
Seven other cars were damaged by the force of the blast.
‘At first, we thought a drone had been shot down,’ said a resident.
‘There was an explosion, but there was no fire.’
The Russian Investigative Committee launched an immediate murder probe into the blast.
‘A criminal case has been opened in Moscow for the murder of a serviceman,’ said Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia.
‘An explosive device planted under the bottom of a car was detonated on Yasenevaya Street in Moscow.
‘Lt-Gen Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, died as a result of his injuries…..
‘The investigation is pursuing various theories regarding the murder.
‘One of them is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services.’
Ukraine is previously believed to have been behind assassinations of senior military figures in Russia.
A year ago Lt-Gen Igor Kirillov, 54, in charge of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological defence troops, died in a blast as he left his apartment building for work.
Major-General Yaroslav Moskalik, 58, died when a Volkswagen Golf exploded as he walked past it close to his residence near Moscow in April this year.
It had emerged that the exploded 2013 Kia Sorento was registered to Sarvarov.
He and his family owned property in the building outside which the explosion struck early today.
He is seen in a picture with Putin in the Kremlin, and with General Gerasimov, as well as former defence minister Sergei Shoigu, now chief of the Kremlin’s security council.
Sarvarov had fought in wars in Syria and Chechnya.
The Ukrainian Myrotvorets site listed him as a ‘Russian war criminal’ who was ‘involved in the genocide of the Ukrainian people by organising and conducting military operations against the civilian population, civilian objects, and infrastructure’.
The latest explosion targeting a high profile military figure shows a major security breach by the Russian authorities in protecting top brass officers.
A Ukrainian Telegram channel described the strike as ‘good news’.
Russian war channels demanded revenge attacks on Ukrainian top brass.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence claimed today to have destroyed Su-27 and Su-30 war planes – valued at £60 million – in a strike on Russia’s Lipetsk air base.
