Senior Russian general killed by car bomb in Moscow

A senior Russian general has been killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow, officials have confirmed.

Russia’s Investigative Committee (SK) – the main federal investigating authority in the country – confirmed Gen Yaroslav Moskalik died when a Volkswagen Golf car exploded after an improvised explosive device stuffed with pellets went off.

Local media reported that the car was parked next to the general’s house in the eastern suburb of Balashikha and exploded as he walked past it.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the killing as a “terrorist attack”, without providing further details, according to Russian Telegram channel Smotri.

Moskalik represented Russia’s General Staff in talks with Ukraine in Paris in 2015, which resulted in the Minsk agreements set up to end the war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces that started in 2014.

According to the Kremlin website, he joined the Russian contingent led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin aide and former Russian ambassador to the US, Yuri Ushakov, for those ceasefire talks.

Videos and photos circulating on Telegram on Friday show a car in flames outside a block of flats. No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the car bomb.

As a matter of policy, Ukraine never officially admits or claims responsibility for targeted attacks such as the one which killed Gen Moskalik.

But unnamed sources within Ukrainian security services have previously told the media, including the BBC, that they have been behind similar assassinations, such as the killing of Gen Igor Kirillov in December 2024. Named officials, though, never went on the record.

Within Russia, there does not appear to be a force willing and able to carry out such attacks.

The incident comes as US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks in central Moscow later on Friday.

Lavrov earlier said Moscow was “ready to reach a deal” with the US to end the Ukraine war, although some elements needed to be “fine-tuned”.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, suggested his country may have to give away territory as part of any peace deal.

Drone attacks on Ukraine continued overnight into Friday.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 103 drones, which killed three people, including a child and a 76-year-old woman, in the town of Pavlohrad, in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Kharkiv also came under attack with its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, saying several private buildings were damaged.