Russia's senior military chief killed in Moscow car explosion

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian Investigative Committee reported on Friday that a senior military officer was killed in a car explosion this morning in the Moscow region.

Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the committee, confirmed that Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff, was in the vehicle when an explosive device detonated.

“The explosive device had a force equivalent to more than 300 grams of TNT,” Petrenko told reporters in Moscow.

The incident follows the death of another senior Russian military official last year.

Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear Defense Troops, was also killed in a similar attack, for which Ukraine’s intelligence services claimed responsibility.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, several other Russian public figures, including war reporters, have been killed in explosions attributed to Ukrainian special services.