Has Ukraine killed one other Russian basic? | EUROtoday

A parking zone within the south of Moscow. There’s a white Kia there, a four-door automotive that is really not notably noticeable. But in footage in Russian media, the entrance a part of the automotive is destroyed, splinters are mendacity round, and the home windows of different parked automobiles are cracked. The police have secured the world with pink and white police tape. Shortly earlier than 7 a.m. native time on Monday, a bomb exploded within the parking zone. The lieutenant basic who owned the Kia had simply pushed off when the explosive machine detonated. Fanil Sarvarov’s legs and face have been so badly injured that he died in hospital.

Sarvarov was a senior army officer and headed the operational coaching division of the Russian General Staff. The State Investigative Committee mentioned a felony case had been opened for homicide utilizing a harmful methodology and unlawful trafficking in explosives. They are additionally investigating whether or not Ukraine may have been concerned within the assault. “Investigators are examining different versions of the murder. One of them is the version that the crime is linked to the Ukrainian secret services,” the spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, wrote on Telegram. There has been no remark from Kyiv up to now.

According to investigators, the explosion occurred on the morning of December twenty second in a parking zone on Yasenevaya Street within the south of the Russian capital, close to a residential constructing. Accordingly, an explosive machine had been positioned beneath the car. According to data from Kommersant newspaper, a magnetic mine was used for the explosion.

The Russian exile broadcaster Dozhd writes that leaked information exhibits that Sarwarov had been registered because the proprietor of a Kia Sorento since 2013. According to the media, the identical information additionally exhibits that the lieutenant basic was a co-owner of an condominium on Yasenevaya Street. According to the media “Agenstwo”, there may be additionally a home close to the crime scene during which a number of workers of the Russian army intelligence service GRU dwell.

According to the BBC’s Russian-language service, 56-year-old Sarvarov was one of many main figures in Russia’s struggle of aggression towards Ukraine. One of his duties was to verify the readiness of the military commanders and the bottom troops to implement the overall plan. He was thought of the chief of workers’s consultant on web site and was effectively knowledgeable concerning the operational state of affairs. “He was the most important link between the ‘brains’ of the Russian General Staff and the commanders of individual sectors of the front,” in response to the BBC.

Sarwarov was born within the Perm Region in 1969 and launched into a army profession at an early age. According to the investigative medium “Project”, he was deployed between 1992 and 2003 within the battle between Ingush and Ossetians and within the Chechen struggle. In 2015 and 2016 he was accountable for operations in Syria. He then grew to become the top of the coaching division. Sarwarov has obtained a number of awards for his “merits”.

Although the precise background remains to be unclear: Sarwarov just isn’t the primary high-ranking army member to die in an assassination try since Russia’s main assault. Kiev claimed accountability for a few of them, whereas others are solely suspected of being linked to Ukrainian secret providers. In April of this yr, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed within the Moscow suburb of Balashikha.

The 59-year-old Moskalik died when he walked previous a parked VW Golf during which a beforehand planted bomb exploded. A day later, the Russian home secret service FSB arrested a suspect. In November, a Russian man was sentenced to life in jail for Moskalik’s homicide. He is alleged to have been paid by Ukraine for the crime.

Last December, Igor Kirillov was killed in a bomb assault exterior his house. Investigators categorised the explosion as a terrorist assault. The Ukrainian secret service claimed accountability for the crime. The detonation was brought on by an explosive machine hidden in an electrical scooter. The 54-year-old Kirillov was a lieutenant basic within the Russian armed forces who headed the particular forces for cover towards radiation, chemical and organic weapons. Since Russia’s main assault, he has publicly repeated Moscow’s narrative that the United States has arrange “biolaboratories” in Ukraine.

In November 2024, Russian Navy Captain Valeriy Trankovskyi was killed by a automotive bomb in Russian-annexed Crimea. According to Ukrainska Pravda, the Ukrainian home secret service SBU is behind the crime.

In July of the identical yr, an explosive machine detonated beneath a Toyota Land Cruiser belonging to a GRU officer in Moscow. He and his spouse survived the assault. 30-year-old Yevgeny Serebryakov confessed to the crime. He mentioned he needed to finish the struggle with the assault. A courtroom sentenced him to 25 years in jail.

Not solely army personnel, but additionally defectors and propagandists are repeatedly focused by Ukraine. In December 2023, the previous Ukrainian MP Ilya Kiva, who had defected to Russia, was shot close to Moscow. The SBU additionally claimed accountability for this act. Kiwa had beforehand accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj on Russian state tv of being responsible for the struggle in Ukraine.

In April 2023, Russian army blogger Maxim Fomin, higher generally known as Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed. In a café in Saint Petersburg he was introduced with a gold-colored plaster bust, which later exploded. The then 26-year-old anti-war activist Darja Trepova gave him the “gift”. According to British media experiences, there may be a connection to the SBU right here.