A car bomb attack rocked central Moscow on Monday, killing Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, a senior figure in Russia’s military leadership and a key planner involved in the invasion of Ukraine.

The assassination underscored growing security vulnerabilities inside Russia as the war enters a new and volatile phase.

Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed that the explosion occurred at 6:55 a.m. local time as Sarvarov was leaving a parking area near his residence.

Investigators said the bomb was magnetically attached to the vehicle and identified Ukrainian intelligence services as a leading line of inquiry. Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the incident.

Authorities released footage showing the vehicle completely destroyed, with visible bloodstains on the driver’s seat.

According to the independent outlet Agentsvo, the blast occurred just 150 meters from a building housing officers of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, amplifying the political shock of the attack.

Who was Ukraine’s target?

Sarvarov, 56, played an active role in the invasion of Ukraine, according to investigative outlet Proekt. His military career spanned combat operations in Chechnya, the Ossetian-Ingush conflict, and Russia’s intervention in Syria.

In 2016, he took charge of the Operational Training Directorate of the General Staff, a post central to planning large-scale military maneuvers. He became a major general in 2018 and was promoted to lieutenant general in 2024.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin received immediate notification of the killing. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian-linked website Myrotvorets, which tracks individuals accused of war crimes, updated Sarvarov’s profile to state that he had been “liquidated,” further escalating tensions.

The assassination adds to a growing list of targeted killings of Russian military officials since 2022. In April, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik died in a car bombing near Moscow.

Last December, a bomb concealed in an electric scooter killed Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces.

Earlier, an attack in Russian-annexed Crimea killed naval officer Valery Trankovsky, whom Kyiv accused of ordering missile strikes on civilian targets.

Investigation begins in Russia

As Moscow investigates the attack, fighting continues to intensify. Overnight, Russian forces struck port and energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, triggering fires and widespread power outages.

Ukrainian officials accused Russia of attempting to disrupt maritime logistics through systematic attacks on ports and energy facilities.

At the same time, Ukraine has stepped up its own campaign against Russian maritime logistics, increasingly targeting oil tankers from the so-called “shadow fleet” used to circumvent international sanctions.

Together, the assassination in Moscow and the escalating strikes around the Black Sea highlight a conflict that is expanding beyond conventional front lines and deep into the strategic core of both nations.