A high-ranking officer of the Russian Army General Staff died this Monday (22) after his car exploded in a neighborhood south of Moscow, according to the Russian Instructional Committee (CIR), which attributed the attack to the Ukrainian intelligence service.
“According to the investigation, (…) on Yasenevo Street, in Moscow, an explosive device placed under a car was triggered. As a result of the injuries received, the head of the military operations directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, died,” said CIR spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko.
The explosion occurred in a parking lot 150 meters from the house where the general, who fought in Chechnya and Syria, among other conflicts, lived.
The newspaper Kommersant reported that the cause of the explosion was a magnetic mine attached to the underside of the vehicle. According to several Telegram channels, the general traveled hundreds of meters in his car before the device was activated.
Petrenko indicated that investigators are evaluating several versions of the murder, one of which links the attack to Ukrainian intelligence services.
“The CIR’s main investigation department has opened a criminal case for murder and illegal trafficking in explosive substances,” he said. Investigators and criminal experts from the CIR central office have already been sent to the scene of the crime.
“The investigation at the scene continues. Investigators will carry out the necessary analyses, including forensic medicine and explosives examinations. Witnesses are being interrogated and security cameras are being reviewed,” he said.
The CIR published a video of the damaged car on Telegram, in which it is possible to see traces of the victim’s blood.
Sarvarov, born in 1969, was a graduate of the Kazan Higher Tank Academy, the Military Armor Academy and the Military Academy of the General Staff of Russia. In 2022, he was included in the Ukrainian website Mirotvorets, which lists “Ukraine’s enemies”.
After the start of the war, Ukraine carried out several similar attacks that resulted in the deaths of Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the operations command of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, and Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s radiological, chemical and biological defense.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who was immediately informed about the explosion, had previously criticized the secret services for failures to protect senior army commandos.
