Balashikha car bomb may mark fourth wartime killing of Russian lieutenant general
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The driver killed in the Balashikha car explosion held the rank of lieutenant general. (Photo: via Agentstvo.News / Telegram)
The driver killed in a car explosion in Balashikha
reportedly held the rank of lieutenant general, several Russian Telegram
channels said, Agentstvo.News
reported.
If confirmed, the killing would be the fourth wartime
assassination of such a high-ranking officer deep inside Russia, journalists
noted. It was not prevented by tightened security measures introduced by
Russia’s FSB security service after the previous assassination.
The pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Demons of Charlie was the
first to report the rank of the man killed. The Kremlin-controlled VChK-OGPU
channel later also reported the same information.
The explosion in Balashikha occurred on the morning of June
9 in an area where military personnel live, 350 meters from the site where a
car carrying Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Russian General Staff, was
blown up in April.
Preliminary reports said the bomb had been planted in a BMW
X3, killing the driver. A Kommersant source said an improvised explosive device
equivalent to up to 500 grams of TNT had been attached to the underside of the
vehicle.
Ruslan Leviev, founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team
research group, said after reviewing video of the explosion that the device
appeared to have been planted “in a parked car, while the perpetrator waited
until the victim’s BMW drew level with the booby-trapped car” and remotely
detonated the bomb.
Lieutenant general is one of the highest officer ranks in
the Russian military. Three lieutenant generals had previously been killed deep
inside Russia.
On April 25, 2025, Russian media reported a car explosion in
a residential courtyard in Balashikha, outside Moscow, in the Aviators
neighborhood, which was built for military personnel.
Russia’s Investigative Committee later confirmed that Lt.
Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operational Directorate of the
General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, had been killed in the explosion and
opened a criminal case into “murder.”
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