Three killed in Moscow car explosion, say Russian authorities

Law enforcement officers block the road near the scene where two traffic police officers and another person were killed in a blast in Moscow. Photograph: Ramil Sitdikov/Reuters

Two traffic police officers and a third person have been killed in a car explosion in Moscow, Russia’s investigative committee has said.

The committee, which investigates major crimes, said in a statement on Wednesday that an explosive device had been triggered when the officers approached a “suspicious person” near their police vehicle on Yeletskaya Street in the south of the capital.

The Interior Ministry named the officers as Lt Ilya Klimanov, 24, and Lt Maxim Gorbunov, 25.

Gorbunov was married and the father of a nine-month-old baby girl, the statement said.

A crime scene has been established and CCTV footage is being reviewed, said officials. Images broadcast on Russian television showed an area cordoned off and a large police presence. Witnesses described an explosion that occurred at about 1.30am local time.

Russian Telegram channels close to the security services said the third person who died was believed to have been planting the explosive device.

An anonymous official from Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as the GUR, told the Associated Press the attack had been carried out as part of an agency operation.

The blast occurred less than half a mile from where a senior Russian military officer, Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov, was killed this week when a bomb exploded under his car. It was not immediately clear whether the two incidents were connected.

Russian investigators described the death of Sarvarov, the head of the operational training directorate of the Russian military’s general staff, as a probable assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services. His car exploded as he was driving along Yaseneva Street at about 7am on Monday.

Russian officials and prominent pro-war voices have called for swift retribution for the attack – the third bombing in Moscow in the past year to claim the life of a senior Russian officer linked to the invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack on Sarvarov.

Ukrainian intelligence agencies have targeted dozens of Russian military officers and Russian-installed officials since the start of the war, accusing them of involvement in war crimes.

Little is known about the clandestine Ukrainian resistance cells believed to be behind assassinations and attacks on military infrastructure inside Russia and in Russian-controlled territories.

With Reuters