Deadly explosion rocks Moscow, days after car bomb killed high-ranking general

Officials in Russia are accusing Ukraine of assassinating a general after an explosive device detonated under the vehicle he was in.

MOSCOW — An explosion in Moscow on Wednesday killed three people, including two police officers, Russian investigators said, days after a car bomb killed a high-ranking general not far away.

The two traffic police officers were approaching a suspicious individual when a device detonated, Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. The officers and another person standing nearby died from their injuries.

Investigators and forensic experts were at the scene, Petrenko said. Russian authorities did not comment on who may be behind the attack.

Russia’s Interior Ministry named the officers as Lt. Ilya Klimanov, 24, who joined the Moscow police in October 2023, and Lt. Maxim Gorbunov, 25. Gorbunov had a wife and a 9-month-old daughter, the statement said.

The blast took place in the same area of the Russian capital where Lt.-Gen. Fanil Sarvarov was killed by a car bomb on Monday morning. Sarvarov was the head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff.

• The killing of a general in Moscow follows a series of assassinations Russia blames on Ukraine

Investigators said Ukraine may have been behind the attack, which was the third such killing of a senior military officer in just over a year.

Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine nearly four years ago, Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for several assassinations of military officers and public figures in Russia. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of them. It has not yet officially commented on either explosion.

Just over a year ago, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was also killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building. Kirillov’s assistant also died. Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for the attack.