Three killed By Bomb in Moscow Near Site of Russian General's Killing

Reuters

Law enforcement officers block the road near the scene where two traffic police officers and another person were killed in a blast in Moscow.

Two traffic police officers and a third individual were killed in a car explosion in Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the committee, which is responsible for investigating serious crimes, said that “an explosive device was triggered” when officers approached a “suspicious person” near their police vehicle on Yeletskaya Street in the south of the capital.

Officials said a crime scene had been secured and CCTV footage was being reviewed. Images broadcast on Russian television showed the area cordoned off, with a heavy police presence. Witnesses reported that the explosion occurred at around 1.30am local time.

Russian Telegram channels linked to the security services suggested that the third person who was killed may have been attempting to plant the explosive device.

The blast took place less than half a mile from the site where a senior Russian military officer, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, was killed earlier this week when a bomb detonated beneath his car in southern Moscow. It was not immediately clear whether the two incidents were connected.

Russian investigators have described Sarvarov’s death as a suspected assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services. Sarvarov, head of the operational training directorate of the Russian military’s general staff, was killed when his vehicle exploded on Yaseneva Street at about 7am on Monday.

Russian officials and prominent pro-war commentators have called for swift retaliation, describing the attack as the third bombing in Moscow over the past year to kill a senior Russian officer linked to the invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack on Sarvarov.

Since the start of the war, Ukrainian intelligence agencies have targeted dozens of Russian military officers and Russian-installed officials, accusing them of involvement in war crimes. Little is publicly known about the clandestine Ukrainian resistance networks believed to be responsible for assassinations and attacks on military infrastructure inside Russia and in Russian-controlled territories.

Sources: The Guardian, Reuters



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