An investigator works at the scene where Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff’s army operational training directorate, was reportedly killed in a car bomb in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2025. Photo: Russia’s Investigative Committee/Handout via Reuters
A Russian general was killed in a car bomb in Moscow on Monday (December 22, 2025), Russia’s investigative committee said.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, died from his injuries, Svetlana Petrenko, official spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of enquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” Mr. Petrenko said.
The committee said that one of the versions being investigated is that the bomb was planted by Ukrainian special services.
Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has been blamed for several attacks targeting Russian military officials and pro-Kremlin personalities in Russia and in Russian-controlled Ukrainian regions.
General Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy of the General Staff, was killed in a car blast near Moscow in April.
In December 2024, Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian radiological, chemical and biological defence forces, was killed when a booby-trapped electric scooter exploded in Moscow, an attack claimed by Ukraine’s SBU security service.
A Russian military blogger, Maxim Fomin, was killed when a statuette exploded in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April 2023.
And in August 2022, a car bomb killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin.
Published – December 22, 2025 12:51 pm IST
