With the Ukraine peace process stalled and US President Donald Trump threatening to walk away from the truce talks, a Russian general was killed by a car bomb on Friday, Russia's top criminal investigation agency said. The incident is the second such instance in the last four months when a military officer was targeted.
Yaroslav Moskalik, the Russian general who was the deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car in Balashikha, just outside Moscow. The committee did not mention any possible suspects.
The Russian media ran videos which showed a vehicle burning in the courtyard of an apartment building. Svetlana Petrenko, the committee's spokesperson, said that the explosive device was rigged with shrapnel, adding that investigators were at the scene.
The attack comes after the killing of Lt General Igor Kirillov, who died on December 17 when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office.
The Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Kirillov, and Ukraine's security agency acknowledged that it was behind that attack.
Kirillov was the chief of Russia's Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, the special troops tasked with protecting the military from the enemy's use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment. Kirillov's assistant also died in the attack.
Friday's bombing came as Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss a US-brokered peace plan for Ukraine. If it occurs, the meeting will be their fourth encounter since February.
(With inputs from AP)
