Russian authorities have detained a “Ukrainian special services agent” accused of planting explosives in a car that killed a senior Russian general on Friday, Moscow’s FSB security agency has said.
Why It Matters
Ukraine has been linked to the deaths of several high-profile Russian commanders since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor more than three years ago, including in operations in Moscow.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday that Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, the deputy chief of the main operational directorate of Russia’s General Staff, was killed earlier in the day when a car exploded in the Balashikha suburb east of central Moscow.
A number of senior Russian commanders have been killed in Ukraine.
Maksim Blinov / Sputnik via AP
What To Know
Russia’s FSB—the country’s main domestic security service succeeding the Soviet-era KGB—said on Saturday it had detained Ignat Kuzin, described by the agency as a Ukrainian spy.
“There is reason to believe that Ukrainian special services were involved in the murder,” Zakharova said on Friday.
Ukraine has not commented and Kyiv does not typically issue public statements indicating responsibility for targeted attacks outside of its territory.
Kuzin is a “resident of Ukraine,” the FSB said, claiming he planted a homemade explosive device in a Volkswagen Golf which was then detonated remotely from Ukrainian territory, according to Russian media.
The FSB said Kuzin had been recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services in April 2023 in the area around the Ukrainian capital. He then traveled to Moscow in September 2023, the agency said.
Russia’s investigative committee, which opened an investigation into Moskalik’s death, said on Saturday Kuzin was “giving a confession,” and had told Russian authorities he had acted on his handler’s instructions.
Moskalik had worked on negotiations with Kyiv, Zakharova said, after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and supported separatist movements in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014.
The bomb exploded just after U.S. President Donald Trump‘s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow for the fourth time this year in an effort to clinch a ceasefire deal, as White House officials signal the administration was running out of patience to broker an agreement.
What People Are Saying
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that if a Russian investigation confirms Ukrainian involvement in the general’s death, it would show “the barbaric and treacherous nature” of the Kyiv government.
Russia’s investigative committee said on Friday, “The explosion occurred as a result of the detonation of a homemade explosive device” filled with shrapnel.
What Happens Next
Russian authorities said teams were still working on the investigation into the general’s death.