Russian General killed in car bombing near Moscow

An explosive device wrecked a parked car near Moscow on Friday killing a senior Russian general. Russian authorities announced an ongoing investigation.

"Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational directorate of the army's General Staff, died as a result of an explosion" in the town of Balashikha, Russian authorities announced.

The assassination of the general comes on the same day that Washington's envoy, Steve Whitkoff, arrives in Moscow to continue the process of normalization of relations between Russia and the United States.

According to AFP, Russian authorities have not yet named a possible perpetrator, but Kiev has been repeatedly accused of carrying out targeted attacks against Russian servicemen since the Russian attack in February 2022.

The explosion took place near a residential building in the town of Balachikha, a few kilometers east of Moscow.

"According to available information, the explosion was caused by the detonation of an improvised explosive device loaded with shrapnel," the Investigative Committee stated.

Unauthenticated images posted on social networks show a car razed by fire and parked near apartment buildings.

CCTV footage released by the Russian outlet Izvestia shows a powerful car explosion, sending fragments into the air, as a person approaches the vehicle.

Since 2022, Kiev has been repeatedly accused of carrying out targeted attacks against Russian VIPs and servicemen in Russia and in Moscow-occupied areas of Ukraine.

In August 2022, a car explosion killed Daria Dugina, daughter of pro-Kremlin ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin.

More recently, in December 2024, the commander of Russia's radiological, chemical and biological defense forces, Igor Kirillov, was killed in Moscow by a booby-trapped electric scooter bomb, an assassination claimed by the Ukrainian security services (SBU).