An explosion in southern Moscow killed two traffic police officers and another person early on Wednesday, Russian investigators said, in an area near where a senior military officer was killed earlier this week by a car bomb.
The Russian Investigative Committee said the blast occurred as the officers attempted to detain a suspicious individual near their patrol vehicle.
“An explosive device was triggered as the officers approached the suspect,” the committee said in a statement, adding that the two officers later died of their injuries. A third person standing nearby was also killed.
Investigators said a criminal case had been opened on charges including attempted murder of law enforcement officers and illegal trafficking of explosives.
The incident took place close to the site where Sarvarov, head of the operational training department within Russia’s General Staff, was killed on Monday by an explosive device placed under a car.
Russian officials said Sarvarov had been involved in training personnel for Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. Russia has accused Ukrainian intelligence of being behind his killing, an allegation Kyiv has not commented on.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, several Russian generals, officials and public figures who supported the war have been killed in explosions inside Russia or in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Ukraine has sometimes claimed responsibility for such attacks.
