A car explosion in Balashikha, a city bordering Moscow, killed Russian Defence Ministry Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik on the morning of 25 April, according to multiple Russian media sources.
The incident occured while US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow earlier on 25 April to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for peace talks. Moskalik served as part of the Russian delegation during the 2015 Normandy Format talks, which were established to seek a resolution to the war in eastern Ukraine involving Russia.
The car explosion happened around 10:40 am when a Volkswagen Golf parked in the courtyard of a residential building exploded as the Russian military officer was passing by. The explosion reportedly threw the general several meters.
“According to preliminary information, the explosion killed the Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik,” Russia’s Investigative Committee reported. “Available data indicates the explosion occurred due to the detonation of an improvised explosive device filled with shrapnel.”
Important Stories media outlet reported that the directorate where Moskalik worked serves as the main link in planning operations in Ukraine.
According to Baza, the car that exploded contained a surveillance camera, and the blast occurred when General Moskalik exited the building entrance. The improvised explosive device was reportedly made using VOG rounds for an underbarrel grenade launcher.
“The VOGs were installed throughout the car, but most were in the left part of the trunk. The shrapnel spread was about 300 meters during the explosion,” Baza reported.
Shot Telegram channel reported that the victim may have been under surveillance for several months to learn his detailed daily routine.
“The Volkswagen that exploded today at 10:40 am was brought to the house on Nesterov Boulevard a few days ago. Preliminarily, the IED was detonated remotely, and the perpetrator could have been observing from an entrance balcony of a neighboring building,” Shot wrote.
Kommersant newspaper reported that two people might have died – a driver and a passenger who was exiting the vehicle.
According to the Mash Telegram channel, the last owner of the exploded Volkswagen was a 40-year-old native of the Ukrainian city of Sumy, Ignat K., who reportedly received a Russian passport and driver’s license in 2015 in Karachay-Cherkessia. He purchased the 2000 Volkswagen Golf in February this year.
Moskalik, 59, was the highest-ranking Russian military officer killed in the rear since Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Armed Forces’ RCBD troops, who died in December 2024 after the detonation of an explosive device near his residential building entrance.
In 2019, Moskalik was the head of the GOU of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case regarding the general’s murder.
Moskalik was involved in the high-level Normandy Four meeting in 2019, as well as in talks with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad a year earlier.
Ukraine has not been officially linked to the car bombing. However, Kyiv has previously targeted Russian officials who play a key role in Russia’s full-scale invasion.
In particular, Mikhail Shatsky, a Russian missile modernization expert involved in weapons used against Ukraine, was shot dead near Moscow. Aleksey Kolomeitsev, a Russian colonel who trained specialists in attack drone operations, was killed in the city of Kolomna in Moscow Oblast, as reported by Ukraine’s military intelligence.
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