Lieutenant-General Yaroslav Moskalik, a high-ranking Russian military officer, was killed on Friday in a targeted car bombing in Balashikha, a town just outside Moscow. Russia’s Investigative Committee reported that the explosive device, rigged with shrapnel, detonated as Moskalik approached a parked car. A second individual was also reported dead in the blast.
Moskalik, who served as deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was involved in diplomatic efforts, including the 2015 Normandy Format talks aimed at resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russian officials have called the incident a terror attack, though investigations are ongoing and no suspects have been named.
This marks the second such attack on a high-ranking Russian officer in recent months, following the December assassination of Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s chemical weapons unit, who was killed in a bombing involving a scooter outside his home.
