The Kremlin accused Ukraine of orchestrating a car bomb that killed a senior Russian military officer near Moscow on Friday, just hours before U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, was scheduled to meet President Vladimir Putin.
There was no official comment from Kyiv on the death of 59-year-old Yaroslav Moskalik, the latest in a series of Russian military officers and pro-war figures to be assassinated since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Witkoff met Putin to discuss U.S. proposals for ending the war, now well into its fourth year.
“The Kyiv regime once again simply shows its true nature. The Kyiv regime continues to be involved in terrorist activity on the territory of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a state TV reporter.
“It shows once again that, despite the peace talks, we must be on guard and understand the nature of this regime.”
No Response From SBU
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service did not respond to a request for comment on the killing of Moskalik, who was deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
That position would have given him an important role in planning Russian military operations, including in Ukraine. State media said he held the rank of lieutenant general.
The body of a man, partially covered in a white sheet, lay on the pavement outside the entrance to an apartment building in the town of Balashikha, east of Moscow, near a burnt-out car.
“The explosion occurred as a result of the detonation of a homemade explosive device filled with destructive elements,” investigators said in a statement.
Last December, the Kremlin had accused Ukraine’s SBU of killing Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in a similar car bomb explosion. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, General Keith Kellogg, said that the attack violated the rules of warfare.
Rising Star
Russian war bloggers described Moskalik as a rising star. He had participated in several high-level Russian delegations that had met Western officials to try to negotiate a settlement to the conflict in Ukraine.
He also dealt with Syria, presenting a report on military-technical cooperation in Africa and the Middle East at a security forum in Moscow in 2021.
Rybar, a Russian war blogger with over 1.2 million subscribers on Telegram, said he was viewed as “one of the most intelligent and demanding officers” in his directorate.
The blogger said Moskalik was being considered to serve as head of the National Defence Management Centre, the supreme command and control centre of the Russian Armed Forces, due to his “systematic approach and thoughtfulness.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
