Russian police officers killed in blast in Moscow, Ukraine claims responsibility

In the second incident this week, at least three people, including two police officers, were killed in Moscow on Wednesday in a blast.

Ukraine carried out the bombing and targeted policemen who had fought in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war (PoWs), sources in the Ukrainian intelligence agency GUR told Kyiv Post.

“[In the early hours] of Dec. 24, two employees of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs were eliminated on Yeletska Street in Moscow, who participated in the war against Ukraine and, in particular, tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war,” a source told Kyiv Post.

The explosive device detonated as the policemen approached a suspicious individual, Russia’s Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement carried by the Associated Press.

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Petrenko added that a person nearby was also killed in the blast.

The Russian Interior Ministry named the officers as Lieutenants Ilya Klimanov, 24, and Maxim Gorbunov, 25, according to AP.

Russian high-profile losses in Moscow bombings

In the first explosion on Monday, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was killed after an explosive device detonated beneath his car in Moscow. He was the head of the operational training directorate of the Russian military.

Sarvarov was the third Russian general killed over the past year.

Moreover, the two policemen on Wednesday were also killed in the same area where Sarvarov died.

Last year, Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical forces, was killed on December 17 when a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building exploded. Then, earlier this year in April, Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the Russian military, was killed when his car exploded.

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Ukraine had claimed responsibility for the blast that killed Kirillov. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had indicated that the country was behind the bombing that killed Moskalik.

Without naming Moskalik, Zelenskyy said in April that he had received a report from GUR’s head on the “liquidation” of top Russian military figures. He added that “justice inevitably comes” without taking any names.