Senior Russian military officer killed in car explosion near Moscow

A car bomb killed a senior Russian military officer in the town of Balashikha just east of Moscow on Friday, Russian investigators said, in an attack that Russian war bloggers blamed on Ukraine.

The killing, on the same day as US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, followed the assassinations of several high-ranking Russian military figures since the start of the war in Ukraine which Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, named the dead officer as 59-year-old Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

It said it had opened a criminal case into the incident.

State media said Moskalik held the rank of lieutenant general. His position at the defence ministry would have given him an important role in planning Russian military operations, including in Ukraine.

Ukraine's SBU intelligence service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

The body of a man, partially covered in a white sheet, could be seen on the pavement outside the entrance to a residential apartment building near to the burnt-out wreckage of a car.

The Kommersant newspaper said a second person had also been killed.

"According to available data, the explosion occurred as a result of the detonation of a homemade explosive device filled with destructive elements," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The statement did not say who might be behind the incident.

RISING STAR

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

Moskalik has in the past participated in several high-level Russian delegations that have met Western officials to try and negotiate a settlement to the conflict in Ukraine.

He also dealt with Syria, presenting a report on military-technical cooperation in Africa and the Middle East at a security forum in Moscow in 2021.

Russian war bloggers accused Ukraine of being behind the killing and described Moskalik as a rising star in the defence ministry.

Rybar, a blogger with over 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."