Russian general, head of Operational Training Directorate of armed forces, killed in car blast in Moscow

A Russian general was killed in a car blast in Moscow Monday morning. According to investigators, an explosive device detonated underneath his car causing the blast and killing the general. This is the third such killing of a senior military officer in a year. Investigators suspect Ukraine hand behind the incident.

Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov was head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff. He succemebed to his injuries in the blast, said Svetlana Petrenko, the spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee, as reported by Associated Press.

“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of enquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” Petrenko said.

Recent high-profile attacks

Last year in December, a similar incident had claimed the life of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces. A bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building went off killing him and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov. An Uzbek man was arrested and charged with Kirillov's killing.

General Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff, was also killed in a car blast near Moscow in April this year.