A car bomb has killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war.
Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was "linked" to "Ukrainian special forces".
The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine.
Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head of the Russian General Staff's training department, was killed when the bomb, which had been placed under his parked car, detonated in a residential quarter of southern Moscow.
AFP reporters at the scene saw a mangled white Kia SUV, its doors and back window blown out.
The frame was twisted and charred from the blast.
The scene had been cordoned off by security forces, and investigators were sifting through the debris. Eyewitnesses reported a loud bang.
"The windows rattled, you could tell it was an explosion," said local man Grigory, 70, who also declined to give his surname.
"We need to treat it more calmly. It's the cost of war," he added.
Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was "working through various lines of enquiry into the murder. One of them involves the possible organisation of the crime by Ukrainian special services".
Mr Sarvarov fought in the Russian army's campaigns in the North Caucasus, including Chechnya in the 1990s, according to his official biography on the defence ministry's website.
He also commanded Russian forces in Syria in 2015-16.
The Kremlin said Russian president Vladimir Putin had been informed about the killing, which came after three days of talks in Miami as the United States intensifies its efforts to broker an end to the four-year war.
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Russia says 'slow progress' in talks with US on Ukraine
Moscow has said that there was "slow progress" in its talks with the US over a plan to end the war.
"Slow progress is being observed," state media reported Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying, after both Russia and Ukraine sent negotiators to the Florida city for separate talks with US President Donald Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Mr Witkoff had hailed "constructive" discussions with both sides, but there were no signs of a breakthrough.
The meetings were part of a weeks-long diplomatic blitz over plans to end the war, after Washington last month presented a proposal widely seen as echoing the Kremlin's demands.
The document has since been redrafted following Ukraine and Europe's involvement, though its contents have not been publicly disclosed.
Moscow has bristled at Europe's involvement, as it tries to broker a deal exclusively with Mr Trump.
Mr Ryabkov has pushed Washington to sideline European leaders, saying there were "extremely harmful, malicious attempts by an influential group of states to torpedo these efforts".
Several European countries, including Britain, France and Germany, have said they could deploy a peacekeeping force to Ukraine if a deal is reached to end the war.
Russia has said that is unacceptable.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed scepticism over whether Russia really wants to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands and decimated eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Kremlin has also denied that it wanted to recreate the Soviet Union, seize the whole of Ukraine and more land in eastern Europe after Reuters reported that US intelligence had concluded Mr Putin seeks much more than just control over eastern Ukraine.
Read more: Latest Ukraine stories
Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has been blamed for several attacks targeting Russian military officials and pro-Kremlin figures in Russia and in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
A car blast near Moscow in April killed General Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy of the General Staff.
In December 2024, Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian radiological, chemical and biological defence forces, was killed when a booby-trapped electric scooter exploded in Moscow, an attack claimed by Ukraine's SBU security service.
A Russian military blogger, Maxim Fomin, was killed when a statuette exploded in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April 2023.
And in August 2022, a car bomb killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin.
