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A Russian military officer was killed Thursday when his car exploded in St. Petersburg’s Pushkinsky district, Russia’s Investigative Committee said, opening a murder investigation.
Local media identified him as a colonel.
"Investigators have opened a criminal case into the murder of a serviceman as a result of a car explosion in the Pushkinsky district," the committee’s city branch said.
Investigators, forensic experts and police were examining the scene and ordering forensic tests to "establish all the circumstances."
The committee did not give the serviceman’s rank or name or the cause of the blast.
The victim was a colonel serving as chief navigator of Russia’s 6th Air Force and Air Defense Army, St. Petersburg’s Channel 78 reported, according to ASTRA, which is labeled as a "foreign agent" by Moscow.
An explosive device was attached to the underside of the car and detonated remotely as the driver left a residential courtyard, local outlet Fontanka reported, citing a source.
The blast occurred around 7:00 a.m. in the Slavyanka neighborhood of Shushary, near a supermarket and gas station, and the Kolpinskoye highway was closed. Initial reports said a family member in the car was injured, but Fontanka later reported that the officer was alone in the vehicle.
In late August, a car explosion in the same area of Pushkinsky district killed a serviceman and seriously injured his wife. The victim was believed to be Maj. Sergei Sechkov of the 332nd Separate Guards Helicopter Regiment, which Ukraine’s military intelligence had accused of strikes on civilians in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Kyiv has been accused of a string of killings of Russian military officers since the 2022 invasion, using car bombs, explosives hidden in scooters and shootings.
Ukraine has claimed some and stayed silent on others.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday’s blast.
The highest-ranking officer killed during the war was Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who died in a December 2024 bombing outside his Moscow apartment. Such attacks have previously prompted President Vladimir Putin to acknowledge security failures by Russia’s intelligence agencies, as investigators probe the latest car bomb.
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