A car bomb killed a Russian general on Monday, the third assassination of a top military official in a year. Investigators said Ukraine may have been behind the attack.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, died of his injuries, said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency.
This undated photo provided by the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday, December 22, 2025, shows Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of Russia via AP
“Investigators are following many lines of inquiry regarding the murder case. One of these is that the crime was committed by the Ukrainian intelligence services,” said Petrenko.
This image taken from a video provided by the Moscow Investigative Committee on Monday, December 22, 2025, shows the location where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Unit of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, 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 assassinations of military and civilian officials in Russia. Ukraine said it was responsible for some of them. There was no comment on Monday’s death.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of Sarvarov’s murder.
The Defense Ministry said Sarvarov had fought in Chechnya and participated in Moscow’s military campaign in Syria.
More than a year ago, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside his building. Kirillov’s assistant also died. Ukrainian security forces claimed responsibility for the attack.
An Uzbek man was immediately arrested and charged with Kirillov’s murder on behalf of the Ukrainian security service.
Putin described Kirillov’s killing as a “big mistake” by Russia’s security agencies, saying they should learn from it and improve their effectiveness.
In April, another senior Russian military officer, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, the deputy head of the main department working in the General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car parked near his building just outside of Moscow. The suspect who was suspected of doing this was immediately arrested.
Days after Moskalik’s murder, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had received a report from the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence agency about the “liquidation” of high-ranking Russian military officials, adding that “justice will surely come” although he did not name Moskalik.
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