Russian general among 2 killed in Moscow-area car bombing

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Apr 25, 2025 8:16 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

A elder Russian subject serviceman was killed erstwhile a car exploded connected Friday successful the municipality of Balashikha conscionable eastbound of Moscow, Russia's Investigative Committee said.

It named the serviceman arsenic Yaroslav Moskalik, lawman caput of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, and said it had opened a transgression lawsuit into the incident.

"According to disposable data, the detonation occurred arsenic a effect of the detonation of a homemade explosive instrumentality filled with destructive elements," the Investigative Committee said successful a statement.

The connection did not accidental who mightiness beryllium down the incident. Several high-ranking Russian subject figures person been assassinated since the 2022 commencement of the warfare successful Ukraine.

The bombing came amid a propulsion to upwind down the war, present into its 4th year, with the Trump administration's U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff successful Moscow, wherever it was expected he'd conscionable Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian media outlet Baza, which has sources successful Russia's instrumentality enforcement agencies, said a weaponry successful a parked car had been detonated remotely erstwhile the serviceman — who lived locally — walked past.

The Izvestia paper published video footage showing a idiosyncratic approaching a enactment of parked cars extracurricular an flat analyzable and an detonation that sent parts of a conveyance flying metres into the air.

Kommersant paper said a 2nd idiosyncratic was besides killed.

2nd subject fig killed successful 5 months

Moskalik had participated successful respective high-level Russian delegations, according to defence ministry bulletins and media reports.

He joined the Russian contingent successful a gathering successful October 2015 of the Normandy Format, a radical made up of teams from Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France who oversaw the Minsk agreements designed to extremity the warfare betwixt Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces that broke retired successful 2014.

Moskalik represented the army's General Staff astatine the negotiations alongside Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kremlin adjutant Yuri Ushakov, according to the Kremlin website.

Russia's RBC paper listed Moskalik arsenic a subordinate successful the information subgroup successful the Minsk talks.

WATCH l The killin gof Lt.-Gen. Igor Kirillov: 

In December, Ukraine's SBU quality work utilized a weaponry hidden successful an electrical scooter to termination Lt.-Gen. Igor Kirillov, whom Kyiv accused of being liable for the usage of chemic weapons against Ukrainian troops.

The SBU did not instantly respond to a petition for remark connected the reported decease of Moskalik.