Russia detains suspect in car blast that killed top general

Russia’s Federal Security Service said it’s detained a suspect in the killing of Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, a top Russian military officer who died in a car blast on Friday, claiming the suspect is a Ukrainian operative.

“He turned out to be an agent of the Ukrainian special services Ignat Kuzin, born in 1983, who has a residence permit in Ukraine,” the Investigative Committee’s spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said.

“Investigators of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee are working with the suspect, the circumstances of the crime are being established, evidence is being collected,” she added.

Moskalik was the deputy head of the main operational department in the Russian army’s General Staff. He died after a Volkswagen Golf exploded in a residential area in Balashikha, just outside of Moscow.

Ukrainian authorities did not comment on the attack.

It follows after Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov died in December last year in an explosion outside his apartment building after a device hidden in an electric scooter was remotely detonated.