A senior Russian general has been killed in a car bombing just outside Moscow, in what authorities described as a targeted assassination likely carried out by Ukrainian special services. The incident, which claimed the life of Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, marks the second deadly attack on high-ranking Russian military officials in recent months.
The Russian Investigative Committee confirmed that Moskalik, who served as deputy head of the main operational department of the General Staff, died after an explosive device was detonated in his parked vehicle in the city of Balashikha, near the capital. According to spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko, the bomb had been rigged with shrapnel to maximise damage, and video footage later surfaced showing the vehicle engulfed in flames in the courtyard of an apartment complex.
Although investigators have not publicly named any suspects, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova quickly accused Ukraine’s intelligence services of orchestrating the attack. “There are reasons to believe that Ukrainian special services were involved in the murder,” she said, though she offered no evidence. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also suggested Kyiv’s involvement, accusing it of “continuing terrorist activity on our soil.”
The blast comes just four months after another senior officer, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter. Ukraine’s security agency later acknowledged its role in that attack, which also killed Kirillov’s assistant.
The assassination unfolded as US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in Moscow for a fourth round of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin revealed the pair discussed a potential return to direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking from Rome, where he had travelled to attend Pope Francis’s funeral, Trump declared that a peace deal was “very close” and that “most of the major points are agreed to”.
Still, major obstacles remain. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected any suggestion of ceding Crimea, insisting the peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, remains Ukrainian territory. “Our position is unchanged,” he said. “The constitution of Ukraine says that all the temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine.”
Trump has hinted at accepting Russian control of Crimea as part of a peace plan. In an interview published Friday, he told TIME magazine: “Crimea will stay with Russia. And Zelensky understands that.”
