A senior Russian navy officer died on Tuesday after a automotive he was driving exploded close to a residential constructing exterior Moscow, a senior Ukrainian official and Russian media shops stated.
The episode seemed to be the newest focused assassination of high-profile opponents of Ukraine in Russia’s heartland. It got here as Kyiv has efficiently thwarted Moscow’s try to launch a summer season offensive and because the Ukrainian navy has been bringing the struggle residence to Russia, together with by way of long-range strikes on Moscow and on oil assets throughout the nation.
Russian investigators stated that they’d opened a legal case associated to the explosion. They stated the blast occurred early Tuesday within the metropolis of Balashikha, east of Moscow. The motive force of the automobile died on the scene, the investigators stated.
The Russian authorities didn’t establish the sufferer or element the character of the legal case that had been opened, and the Ukrainian authorities had no official remark in regards to the explosion.
However two Russian and two Ukrainian media shops stated that the person who died was Damir R. Davydov. A senior Ukrainian official who requested anonymity to debate delicate issues confirmed that Mr. Davydov was the sufferer and stated that he was an officer within the provide division for the Fundamental Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian navy.
On Wednesday, when requested in regards to the episode, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, stated that President Vladimir V. Putin had been briefed in regards to the matter. He added that particulars in regards to the case have been “not topic to public disclosure due to the continued investigation.”
The explosion occurred in the identical neighborhood the place an attack took place in April 2025. In that strike, Maj. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the principle operational division of the Common Employees, was killed by a automotive bomb.
Ukrainian particular companies have focused quite a lot of high-profile Russian navy figures in assaults which have uncovered officers’ vulnerability and embarrassed the Kremlin’s safety companies.
On the finish of December, Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Common Employees’s military operational coaching directorate, died in a car bombing. The 12 months earlier than, in December 2024, Igor Kirillov, a general in control of the Russian navy’s nuclear and chemical weapons safety forces, died after an explosive system planted in a scooter detonated near the entrance to a residential constructing.
On the time, Mr. Putin described Mr. Kirillov’s killing as a “extreme blunder” and stated that Russian particular companies ought to forestall such circumstances from taking place sooner or later.
Whereas Russia has additionally tried covert actions in Ukraine, it has discovered much less success. In July, an officer from an elite unit of Ukraine’s home intelligence company was shot dead on a street in Kyivthe Ukrainian capital, and suspicion fell on Russia. However Ukraine’s intelligence companies have described thwarting a number of different assassination plots geared toward President Volodymyr Zelensky, in addition to at senior navy and intelligence officers.
