Three people, including two police officers, have been killed in an explosion in Moscow, Russian authorities have said.
Two traffic police officers saw a “suspicious individual” near a police car on the city’s Yeletskaya Street, and when they approached the suspect to detain him, an explosive device was detonated, Russia’s Investigative Committee has said.
The two police officers died from their injuries, along with another individual who was standing nearby.
The blast took place close to the location where a senior Russian general was killed in a car bombing in the capital on Monday.
Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov died after an explosive device – which had been planted under a car – was detonated.
Investigate Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement on Telegram that a criminal case was being investigated in Moscow “regarding an attempt on the lives of traffic police officers”.
Russian general killed
A Russian general was killed in a car bombing in Moscow, officials said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov died on Monday morning after an explosive device planted under a car detonated.
He is the third military official to have been killed in bomb attacks in the Russian capital over the last year.
Sarvarov, 56, was the head of the armed forces’ operational training department, the committee said.
It added one theory being investigated was that the bomb was planted with the involvement of Ukrainian intelligence services. Ukraine has not commented.
Sarvarov died in hospital as a result of his injuries, the committee said, adding it had opened an investigation into murder and illegal trafficking of explosives.
Investigators have been sent to the scene, in a car park near an apartment block in the south of Moscow.
Images from the area show a badly damaged white Kia Sorento with the doors blown out, surrounded by other vehicles.
According to Russian media, Sarvarov previously took part in combat operations during the Ossetian-Ingush conflict and the Chechen wars in the 1990s and early 2000s, and also led operations in Syria between 2015-2016.
Vladimir Putin was informed of Sarvarov’s death immediately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a number of military officials and high-profile individuals have been targeted in the Russian capital.
Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent nationalist figure and Putin close ally, was killed in a suspected car bombing in 2022.
Gen Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car bomb attack last April, while Gen Igor Kirillov died in December 2024 when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated remotely.
A Ukrainian source later told the BBC that Kirillov was killed by Ukraine’s security service, though this was never confirmed on the record. As a matter of policy, Ukraine never officially admits or claims responsibility for targeted attacks.
