A senior Russian navy commander was killed on Friday in a automobile explosion in a suburb of Moscow, investigators stated.
The Investigative Committee of Russia, the nation’s equal to the F.B.I., issued an announcement identifying the officer as Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a senior determine within the Russian Common Workers who was instantly concerned in planning operations. The investigators stated that that they had opened a prison inquiry into the explosion, which occurred within the city of Balashikha, east of Moscow.
The explosion got here as Russian state information businesses reported that Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s particular envoy, was in all probability in Moscow. Mr. Witkoff was anticipated to conduct one other spherical of high-profile negotiations with President Vladimir V. Putin over ending the warfare in Ukraine and re-establishing the bilateral relationship between Russia and the US. Mr. Putin has cast aside Mr. Trump’s calls for a fast peace in Ukraine, and Russia’s airstrikes on civilian targets seem like growing.
Common Moskalik’s demise is the newest in a sequence of fatalities amongst Kyiv’s opponents inside Russia. The Ukrainian authorities had no quick remark when contacted concerning the killing.
In February, a outstanding pro-Russia separatist determine from Ukraine, Armen Sarkisyan, was killed when a bomb exploded inside a gated residence in Moscow. Ukrainian officers didn’t touch upon the blast on the time.
On the finish of December, a basic accountable for the Russian navy’s nuclear and chemical weapons safety forces, Igor Kirillov, was killed by a bomb close to the entry to a residential constructing in Moscow. An official with Ukraine’s safety service, often called the S.B.U., stated on the time that Ukraine was answerable for the killing.
Maria Varenikova contributed reporting.
