Senior Russian General Killed In Moscow Suburb Car Blast

Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, a senior official in Russia’s General Staff, was killed in a car explosion in the Moscow suburb of Balashikha today, according to the Investigative Committee's spokesperson, Svetlana Petrenko.

“According to preliminary information, the explosion killed the deputy head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik,” Petrenko said in a statement.

The blast occurred near house number 2 on Nesterov Street when a Volkswagen Golf exploded. Authorities say the explosion was caused by a homemade device. A criminal case has been opened under articles related to murder and the illegal handling of explosives.

A team of investigators, forensic experts, and operatives is working at the scene to gather evidence and determine how the device was planted.

Russian Mash Telegram channel reported that the car exploded around 10:40 a.m., with the blast intensified by the car’s gas cylinder equipment, throwing the victim several meters away. The explosive device may have also included VOG-25 underbarrel grenade launcher rounds. It is reported the device could have been remotely triggered when the officer, who lived nearby, approached.

The car, originally gasoline-powered, was sold multiple times over the year and may have been converted to run on gas. It was last sold by a 26-year-old Andrii P. to 40-year-old Ihnat K. from Sumy, after being briefly owned by a 29-year-old Azerbaijani citizen.

A car belonging to Russian electronic warfare designer Yevgeny Rytikov exploded in Bryansk overnight on April 17–18, according to RBC-Ukraine citing defense sources. Rytikov, who led the design bureau at the Bryansk Electromechanical Plant and worked on modernizing the Krasukha EW systems, was reportedly in the car with a colleague at the time of the blast.

The son of a senior U.S. CIA official reportedly joined the Russian army and was later killed in Ukraine, according to an investigation by Important Stories. Michael Gloss, 21, son of CIA Deputy Director Julian Gallina Gloss and Iraq War veteran Larry Gloss, once known for his pacifist views and activism in the U.S., traveled to Russia in 2023 after a world trip. He eventually joined the 137th Ryazan Regiment and was deployed to Donetsk. He died on April 4, 2024, likely during fighting near Bakhmut, but was buried months later. His family described his death as "tragic" without giving details.

Today's incident follows a similar fatal explosion on December 17 in southeastern Moscow, which killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his aide, Major Ilya Polikarpov. In that case, a device hidden in an electric scooter exploded near a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested a suspect in connection with the earlier bombing. The FSB said the attacker used a car-sharing vehicle outfitted with a Wi-Fi camera to surveil the victims, transmitting live video to contacts in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. The explosive was then detonated remotely after the officers exited the building.

According to FSB investigators, the suspect—an Uzbek national born in 1995—was promised $100,000 and safe passage to an EU country in exchange for carrying out the attack. He was later apprehended in the village of Chernoye, also in the Balashikha district.