This is the moment a Russian General was killed after a car exploded in the Moscow region today, threatening to undermine upcoming talks on peace terms with Ukraine.
Russian investigators confirmed the death of Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for what appeared to be a deliberate attack.
Kommersant newspaper said a second person was also killed in the attack, some 10 miles from Moscow. TASS, the state news agency, reported just one.
Footage showed a powerful blast destroying a Volkswagen Golf at around 10.40am local time (7.40am GMT), which reports said ‘threw the general several metres away’.
Russian media outlet Baza, which has sources in Russia’s law enforcement agencies, said a bomb in a parked car on Bulvar Nesterova had been detonated remotely when the officer – who lived locally – walked past.
The explosion occurred as US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin – coloured by a recent flurry of attacks on Kyiv that drew ire from Trump on Thursday, urging ‘Vladimir, STOP!’
Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said earlier today that Moscow was ‘ready to reach a deal’ with the mediating United States to end the war in Ukraine, adding that some elements of a proposed deal still need to be ‘fine tuned’.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko broke ranks in suggesting that Ukraine may have to concede territory for a deal to be made.
The Kremlin will be seeking to appease the US with a show of good faith after the Trump administration threatened to walk away from its intermediary role earlier this week, unless the two sides can come to an agreement.
Russian media circulated the purported scene of the explosion in Moscow region on Friday
The moment of the explosion said to have killed Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces
Yaroslav Moskalik (circled, left) with former Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu (centre)
Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, April 25
Images from the scene of the explosion posted on social media showed a blaze that had gutted a car parked near blocks of flats in the town east of Moscow.
Security camera footage posted by the Izvestia newspaper showed a massive explosion from a parked car, sending fragments flying into the air.
The blast happens just as someone can be seen walking towards the car.
The TASS state news agency reported, citing unnamed law enforcement officers, that ‘the cause of the blast was an improvised explosive device’ and that fragments found at the scene had been sent for testing.
It reported that the explosive device was packed with metal fragments designed to cause maximum harm.
‘According to emergency response officials, the device had the explosive power of more than 300 grams of TNT,’ TASS reported.
RIA Novosti state news agency cited an unnamed emergency services official as saying that according to initial information, one person was killed.
Russian Telegram channel Mash, which has purported links to law enforcement, wrote that the explosion had killed a senior military figure from the main operational directorate of Russia’s General Staff.
Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed that Lieutenant General Moskalik had been killed in the explosion.
Moskalik represented Russia’s General Staff in talks with Ukraine in Paris in 2015, following the 2014 invasion of Crimea.
Yaroslav Moskalik, 59, (circled) pictured with Andrey Belousov (centre), Minister of Defence
The aftermath of the explosion, with black smoke billowing from the wreckage of the car
Search and rescue operations at the site of the Russian attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine on April 25, 2025
‘A Volkswagen Golf exploded after an improvised explosive device stuffed with pellets went off,’ spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said, commenting on the explosion.
The blast appeared to be similar in nature to previous attacks on Russians linked to Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine.
Kyiv has in some cases claimed responsibility. A Ukrainian source told the BBC in December that they had killed another Lt Gen, Igor Kirillov, with a device hidden in a scooter, detonated remotely outside a residential block.
It comes at a sensitive time, with Ukraine and Russia now both vocally calling for a ceasefire – though demanding different terms.
Donald Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, announced on Wednesday that the US plans to step back from negotiations unless both sides agree to a peace deal.
But a blistering attack on Kyiv – the deadliest of its kind since last July, killing at least 12 people – prompted a rare rebuke from the president on his Truth Social platform.
‘I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP!’ he wrote.
The attacks also forced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky forced to return to Kyiv, cutting short an overseas summit with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Zelensky had been expected to attend Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday before the attack.
Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference at the Kremlin in Moscow on April 25, 2025
Smoke billows from the scene of a vehicle explosion reported locally as an IED blast
The explosion occurred next to a block of flats and reportedly sent the official flying
Lavrov added in his address today that ‘we only target military goals or civilian sites used by the military’ – as Ukraine reported three people including a child had been killed in Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk region.
He also insisted Russia was keen on working towards a ceasefire.
But with the United States threatening to pull out of its role, mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko conceded that Ukraine may have to lose some territory in order to make a peace deal work.
He told the BBC that such a deal would be unfair, but could help to stop the fighting.
Ukraine has long opposed the American suggestion that it could hand over territory in concession to a belligerent invading force.
It will also be seeking security guarantees from partners to ward off Russia reopening the conflict at a later date, with Zelensky citing dozens of times Moscow has breached ceasefire agreements in recent years.
Despite the Kremlin’s insistence it is ‘ready’ to reach a deal, Russian attacks on Ukraine continued overnight.
Three people have died and 10 others are injured after a drone struck a residential building in a south-eastern Ukrainian city, officials said on Friday.
Yaroslav Moskalik, pictured in 2021, was reported to have died in the explosion on Friday
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (front, left) had to cut short his overseas trip to meet South African president Cyril Ramaphosa (front, right) after Russia’s latest attacks on Kyiv
Ukrainian artillery fires towards Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at a position in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine April 24
Among the civilians killed in the night-time drone strike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, were a child and a 76-year-old woman, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy drones at five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s air force reported.
Authorities in the north-eastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions reported damage to civilian infrastructure but no casualties.
Russia pounded Kyiv in an hours-long barrage on Thursday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 87 in its deadliest assault on the Ukrainian capital since July.