Kremlin blames Ukraine after Russian general killed in car bomb explosion

Moscow: The Kremlin has blamed Ukraine for a car bomb that killed a senior Russian military officer near Moscow on Friday, hours before US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Vladimir Putin in the capital.

There was no official comment from Kyiv on the death of 59-year-old Yaroslav Moskalik, the latest in a series of Russian military officers and pro-war figures to be assassinated since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Witkoff met Putin for three hours to discuss US proposals for ending the war, now well into its third year, and the Kremlin said the two sides’ positions had moved closer.

The explosion was a second such attack on a top Russian military officer in four months.Credit: AP

Russia’s top criminal investigation agency did not immediately mention possible suspects in the car bombing, but Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova declared without offering evidence that “there are reasons to believe that Ukrainian special services were involved”.

“If the investigation confirms the Ukrainian trace in this case, this will once again demonstrate to the world community the barbaric and treacherous nature of the Kyiv regime, which is betting on an escalation of military confrontation with Russia and irresponsibly ignoring constructive proposals aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict,” Zakharova said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed that sentiment, telling Russian state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin on Friday that Kyiv “continues its involvement in terrorist activity on our soil.” He also didn’t offer any evidence.

Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service did not respond to a request for comment on the killing of Moskalik, who was deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

That position would have given him an important role in planning Russian military operations, including in Ukraine. State media said he held the rank of lieutenant general.

The body of a man, partially covered in a white sheet, lay on the pavement outside the entrance to an apartment building in the town of Balashikha, east of Moscow, near a burnt-out car.

“The explosion occurred as a result of the detonation of a homemade explosive device filled with destructive elements,” Russian investigators said in a statement.

Flames and smoke rise from the scene where Russian general Yaroslav Moskalik was killed by a car bomb on Friday.Credit: AP

Ukraine’s SBU killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in a similar manner last December. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, General Keith Kellogg, said at the time that the attack violated the rules of warfare.

Rising star

Russian war bloggers described Moskalik as a rising star. He had participated in several high-level Russian delegations that had met Western officials to try to negotiate a settlement to the conflict in Ukraine. He also dealt with Syria, presenting a report on military-technical co-operation in Africa and the Middle East at a security forum in Moscow in 2021.

Rybar, a Russian war blogger with more than 1.2 million subscribers on Telegram, said he was viewed as “one of the most intelligent and demanding officers” in his directorate.

The blogger said Moskalik was being considered to serve as head of the National Defence Management Centre, the supreme command and control centre of the Russian Armed Forces, due to his “systematic approach and thoughtfulness”.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case into the incident.

The attack follows the killing of Kirillov on December 17, 2024, when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office. Russian authorities also blamed Ukraine, and Ukraine’s security agency acknowledged it was behind the attack.

Kirillov was the chief of Russia’s Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, the special troops tasked with protecting the military from the enemy’s use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment. Kirillov’s assistant also died in that attack.

Police and investigators work at the car-bombing scene.Credit: AP

Peace talks

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, who took part in Friday’s meeting with Witkoff, described it as constructive and very useful.

“This conversation allowed Russia and the United States to further bring their positions closer together, not only on Ukraine but also on a number of other international issues,” he told reporters.

“As for the Ukrainian crisis itself, the discussion focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine.”

There was no immediate comment from Witkoff.

Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Reuters, AP

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