A Russian general was killed Monday morning in a car explosion in southern Moscow, the Russian Investigative Committee announced, adding that it was investigating a Ukrainian connection.

According to investigators, an explosive device placed under a car was detonated on Iassenevaïa Street.

Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the operational training department within the General Staff, "succumbed to his injuries," the committee said in a statement.

An investigation for "murder" and "explosives trafficking" has been opened, according to the same source.

One of the leads being investigated is that "linked" to "Ukrainian special services", the committee stated.

Since the start of the Russian offensive against its Ukrainian neighbor in February 2022, Kyiv has been repeatedly accused of carrying out targeted attacks against Russian figures and military officials in Russia and in Moscow-occupied areas of Ukraine.

In August 2022, a car bomb killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin. In April 2023, a Russian military blogger, Maxim Fomin, was killed when a statuette exploded in a Saint Petersburg café.

More recently, in April, General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, was killed in a car explosion near Moscow.

In December 2024, the commander of Russia’s radiological, chemical and biological defense forces, Igor Kirillov, was killed by the explosion of a booby-trapped electric scooter in Moscow, an assassination that was claimed by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).