Pro-Russian paramilitary leader Armen Sarkisyan killed, while Ukraine eyes attacks on recruitment centres.
An explosion in a Moscow apartment block has killed the leader of a pro-Russian military faction based in eastern Ukraine, according to Russian state media.
The blast was caused by a bomb planted at the Alye Parusa residential complex, about 12km (7 miles) from the Kremlin, on Monday morning, Russia’s Tass news agency reported. The attack is the latest in a series of targeting Russian or pro-Russian figures amid Moscow’s invasion.
Citing law enforcement services, Tass labelled the blast an “assassination attempt” and reported that Armen Sarkisyan had died after being hospitalised in critical condition. Kyiv accuses the former boxer of aiding Russia’s war effort in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
“The assassination attempt on Sarkisyan was carefully planned and was ordered. Investigators are currently identifying those who ordered the crime,” Tass quoted a law enforcement official as saying.
One of Sarkisyan’s bodyguards was also killed.
‘Crime boss’
In December, Ukraine’s SBU security service described Sarkisyan as a “crime boss” in the Donetsk region, much of which has been controlled by Moscow since 2014.
He was officially suspected of participating in and aiding “illegal armed groups”. The SBU said he had founded a pro-Russian military formation, made up of local convicts, and organised purchases of supplies for frontline units.
The security service noted that Sarkisian was “close” to Ukraine’s removed ex-president Viktor Yanukovych and had been on a wanted list since 2014, accused of “organising murders” during the “Maidan” revolution that unseated him.
‘Shameful attacks’
Ukraine, which in December claimed credit for a similar explosion near a Moscow apartment that killed a Russian general, issued no immediate comment on the blast.
However, Ukraine has launched a probe into unexplained attacks on its own military forces.
Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky on Monday called for an investigation into what he described as “shameful” attacks on military recruitment centres and officials over the weekend.
One soldier was shot dead in the eastern Poltava region, while another seven were killed or injured in a blast in the western city of Rivne.
“Violence against servicemen is unacceptable. We expect a full and comprehensive investigation of these crimes,” he said.
Struggling for soldiers and resources on the frontline, Kyiv has been pushing to boost recruitment, which has provoked anger and some violence.
Continued drone assaults
The attack in Moscow came on the heels of a deadly air strike on a school in Russia’s Kursk region on Saturday. With the town occupied by Ukrainian forces, Moscow and Kyiv have been busy trading blame for the attack.
Neither has paused the daily barrages with which they are targeting one another, however. Overnight on Monday, they both fired dozens of drones.
Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement that Kyiv’s attacks had hit an oil refinery in the Volgograd region and another processing plant in the nearby Astrakhan region.
With the front-line fight proving difficult, Ukraine has escalated its air raids in recent months, aiming to interrupt Russian military logistics or dent oil revenues that Moscow uses to fund its war effort.
But that has not reversed Ukraine’s mounting battlefield losses in the southeast, where Russia is increasing control.
That is bad news for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is under growing pressure to open negotiations with Russia as United States President Donald Trump balks at US military aid to Ukraine.
Both Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have said they are ready for talks on ending the war, but neither has said when or how.
Putin said last month he was willing to hold talks with Ukraine, but not with Zelenskyy, whom he called “illegitimate”.
