Russian officer killed by car bomb in St Petersburg as murder investigation begins

The local office of the Investigative Committee confirmed the death and stated the cause had not yet been established. The blast occurred in the Pushkinsky district of St Petersburg, specifically in the settlement of Shushary on Kolpinskoy Highway.

Explosion Details

According to Russian media, the serviceman was alone in his car when the explosion occurred. The explosive device had been attached to the underside of the vehicle and was detonated remotely as he was leaving a courtyard. The officer died at the scene, with the moment of the blast captured by an intercom camera.

Previous Attacks

On 27 August 2026, in the Slavyanka district of the same settlement, a lieutenant colonel from the air and air defence forces was blown up together with his wife. Both lost their legs, with the lieutenant colonel dying at the scene. A 24-year-old Russian woman who had left for Turkey after the explosion was suspected of planting the bomb.

The highest-ranking Russian officer targeted since the start of the full-scale war was Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was killed near his flat in Moscow in December 2024. Ukraine explicitly claimed responsibility for killing Kirillov, whom Kyiv accused of ordering the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops.

Pattern of Violence

Other high-ranking officers have been killed in similar attacks. In April 2025, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalyk was killed when his car exploded in Balashikha, near Moscow. In December that year, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was blown up outside his home, just 16km from the Kremlin.

In February 2026, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev was shot at in the lobby of a Moscow apartment building. In April, a battalion commander was killed when a device planted in a post box exploded on the grounds of a military garrison in Russia's Khabarovsk region.