Balashikha
\nA senior Russian general has been killed after a home-made explosive device ripped through a parked car in the town of Balashikha, east of Moscow, according to the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes in the country.
\nAuthorities named Lieutenant-General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational directorate of the military\u2019s General Staff, as the victim of Friday\u2019s attack, which appeared to be similar to previous attacks on Russians linked to Moscow\u2019s military offensive in Ukraine.
\n\u201cAccording to available data, the explosion occurred as a result of the detonation of a homemade explosive device filled with destructive elements,\u201d the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Friday.
\nInvestigators added that they had opened a probe into the deadly attack after a Volkswagen Golf blew up outside a block of flats in Balashikha. The statement did not say who might be behind the incident.
\nSecond victim reported
\nRussia\u2019s Kommersant newspaper said a second person was also killed.
\nImages from the scene posted on social media showed a blaze that gutted a car.
\nThe Agentstvo investigative news site, citing leaked information, said Moskalik lived in Balashikha, but the Volkswagen was not registered to him.
\nSecurity camera footage posted by the Izvestia newspaper showed a massive explosion, sending fragments flying into the air. The blast happens just as someone can be seen walking towards the car.
\nAccording to the Kremlin website, Moskalik was a Russian military representative at the \u201cNormandy Format\u201d talks on Ukraine in 2015, amid the conflict between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists.
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin made him lieutenant-general in 2021.
\nPrevious deadly attacks on Russians linked to the war in Ukraine include the August 2022 car bombing of nationalist Darya Dugina, and an explosion in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April 2023 that killed high-profile military correspondent Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky.
\nIgor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military\u2019s chemical weapons unit, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter in Moscow in December, the boldest assassination claimed by Kyiv since the start of the conflict.
\nAfter Kirillov\u2019s killing, Putin made a rare admission of failings by his powerful security agencies, saying: \u201cWe must not allow such very serious blunders to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Balashikha A senior Russian general has been killed after a home-made explosive device ripped through a parked car in the town of Balashikha, east of Moscow, according to the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes in the country. Authorities named Lieutenant-General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational directorate of the military\u2019s General Staff, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-474950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n