World News
Russian Military Officer Killed in Car Bombing in St. Petersburg
A Russian military officer with the rank equivalent to a lieutenant colonel was killed when an explosive device attached to his car detonated. His wife was seriously injured. The Kremlin called it "an operation by Ukrainian intelligence."
IllustrationA senior Russian military officer, holding a rank equivalent to lieutenant colonel, was assassinated today (Thursday) in the heart of a neighborhood in St. Petersburg. Sources in the Russian Kremlin told Russian media that it was "an assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence."
According to the report, the officer, who served in Russia's security establishment, was killed when a device attached to his car exploded. His wife, who was with him, was seriously injured. The blast occurred at around 10:00 a.m. local time near a supermarket in the Shushary neighborhood of St. Petersburg.
Over the course of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Ukrainians have been linked to several assassinations of senior Russian military and intelligence officials deep inside Russian territory. Two weeks ago, Robert Shagayev was killed in Crimea. He had previously commanded the submarine "Zaporizhzhia" in the Ukrainian military before defecting to Russia. He was killed by an explosive device planted in a trash can.
Two weeks before that, a senior Russian security official was killed by an explosive device at an Italian restaurant in Moscow. In June, General Damir Davidov, head of the missile and artillery department of Russia's Defense Ministry, was assassinated in a car bombing. Last December, Lieutenant General Panil Sarbarov, who headed the operational training department of the Russian General Staff, was assassinated in central Moscow and also killed in a car bombing.
They were preceded by the assassinations of Arman Sarkisyan, founder of the "Arbat Battalion," which fought in Ukraine; Igor Kirillov, who headed the "Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Defense Forces" and was killed in December 2024 by an explosive device planted in an electric scooter; pro-regime Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who encouraged the invasion of Ukraine and was killed in a cafe bombing in 2023; and Darya Dugina, who was killed in 2022 in a car bombing aimed at her father, Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin, considered one of Putin's ideologues.
