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Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, 56, was killed by a car bomb in southern Moscow on the morning of Dec. 22, 2025. Photo: Shot
On the morning of Dec. 22, a car exploded in southern Moscow, killing a senior Russian Defense Ministry official. Telegram channels close to the security services, including Baza and Shot, reported the explosion before any official announcement was made, while the Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, subsequently confirmed the details.
According to the committee, the victim was Fanil Sarvarov, a Defense Ministry official. Telegram channels reported that the 56-year-old man suffered multiple shrapnel wounds and fractures, later dying of his injuries.
Baza reported that the driver managed to travel several meters before the vehicle exploded. Photos from the scene indicate the blast originated in the front of the car. Shot said a homemade explosive device was likely planted under the vehicle.
The exploded car was identified as a white Kia Sorento. The Telegram channel VChK-OGPU was among the first to name the victim, claiming he was Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff’s operational training directorate.
Data leaks reviewed by The Insider show that a Kia Sorento XM FL manufactured in 2013 was registered to Sarvarov. The vehicle appears in leaked databases from 2024. Records also indicate that, no later than 2020, Sarvarov acquired a share in an apartment on Yasenevaya Street — the same location where the explosion occurred.
The Investigative Committee later confirmed Sarvarov’s identity and said a criminal case had been opened into the killing of a serviceman.
“The investigation is considering various versions of the murder. One of them involves the possible organization of the crime by Ukrainian special services,” said the Investigative Committee’s spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko.
Commenting on the incident, anti-corruption activist Ilya Shumanov noted that nearly four years into the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry has still failed to protect senior military officials, as information about Sarvarov’s car and address could be obtained within minutes through leaked data bots.
According to Shumanov, the Kia Sorento was blown up at Sarvarov’s registered address, in the parking lot of a residential building on Yasenevaya Street. He said Sarvarov had lived there since at least 2020 and owned the vehicle since at least 2015, adding that Sarvarov’s daughter also used the car.
Shumanov said Sarvarov was at least the second senior Russian military official killed by a car bombing in 2025. In April, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the General Staff’s main operations directorate, was killed in a similar attack. Moskalik, he said, also lived openly at his registered address, in Balashikha outside Moscow.
Sarvarov’s death also follows a similar attack in Moscow a year earlier, when Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed after an explosive device attached to a scooter detonated as he left a residential building. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) indirectly claimed responsibility for the attack, with anonymous sources from the agency telling multiple Western media outlets — including CNN, The Washington Post, and The Economist — that Kyiv’s forces had assassinated Kirillov.
Sarvarov, for his part, had taken part in combat operations during the Ossetian-Ingush conflict, the wars in Chechnya, and Russia’s military operation in Syria. He also took part in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the investigative outlet Proekt.