Moscow car blast: Two police officers, one civilian killed; Russia blames Ukraine

An explosion in southern Moscow killed three people, including two police officers, on Wednesday, authorities said, in an incident that comes just days after a car bomb killed a senior Russian military officer in the same area.

Russia’s investigative committee said the blast occurred as two traffic police officers approached a “suspicious individual”, when an explosive device detonated, spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. The two officers and another person standing nearby later died of their injuries, reported AP.


“Investigators and forensic experts are working at the scene,” Petrenko said, without providing further details on the nature of the device or the suspect involved.


The explosion took place in the same part of Moscow where Lt General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the operational training directorate of the Russian armed forces’ general staff, was killed on Monday morning. Sarvarov died when an explosive device detonated beneath his vehicle, investigators said.

Russian authorities have suggested that Ukraine may have been behind the attack on the senior officer. That killing was described as the third assassination of a high-ranking Russian military official in just over a year.

There was no immediate official link established between Wednesday’s explosion and the earlier car bombing, and investigators did not comment on whether the incidents were connected.

The latest blast points to heightened security concerns in the Russian capital following a series of targeted attacks involving explosive devices.