A Russian general lost his life on Monday in a car bomb explosion, marking the third assassination of a high-ranking military official within the past year. Russian investigators have indicated that there is a possibility Ukraine could be involved in this attack.

Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, who led the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, succumbed to his injuries, according to Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s primary criminal investigation body.

Petrenko stated, “Investigators are exploring various leads in this murder case, one of which suggests that Ukrainian intelligence services orchestrated the crime.”

President Vladimir Putin remarked that the assassination of Sarvarov was a significant oversight by Russian security agencies, emphasizing the need for them to learn from this incident and enhance their operational effectiveness.

In a similar incident in April, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head within the main operational department of the General Staff, was killed by a bomb placed in his car near his residence outside Moscow. The authorities swiftly apprehended a suspect in connection with this attack.

Shortly after Moskalik’s death, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that he had received information from Ukraine’s foreign intelligence chief regarding the “elimination” of senior Russian military officials, asserting that “justice inevitably comes,” though he did not directly reference Moskalik by name.