Deputy Chief of Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff
Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalyk Killed
On April 25 (local time), a high-ranking Russian military officer of general rank was killed in a vehicle explosion near Moscow, Russia, according to a report by RIA Novosti.
According to the report, the Russian Investigative Committee announced that it had launched an investigation into the murder of Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalyk, Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff.
The Investigative Committee explained that it had initiated a criminal case under the articles of murder and illegal trafficking of explosives in connection with the vehicle explosion that occurred in the village of Balashikha, Moscow Oblast.
TASS news agency, citing an official from the Investigative Committee, reported that a preliminary investigation found that an improvised explosive device (homemade bomb) was used in the incident, and that the device was packed with metal fragments to maximize damage.
On social media, videos are circulating showing a vehicle exploding in a parking lot near an apartment complex in the village of Balashikha.
This is not the first time a high-ranking Russian military officer has been killed in an explosion. In December last year, Igor Kirillov, Commander of the Russian Defense Ministry's Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Defense Forces, who oversaw CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) weapons for the Russian military, and two aides died in an explosion on a Moscow boulevard.
Other pro-government figures and military personnel have also been assassinated, including Darya Dugina, daughter of a Russian far-right ideologue; military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky; and Stanislav Rzhitsky, a former submarine commander of the Black Sea Fleet.
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