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A senior Russian military commander was killed on Friday in a car explosion in a suburb of Moscow, investigators said, the latest in a series of fatalities among Ukraine\u2019s opponents inside Russia.<\/p>\n
The Investigative Committee of Russia, the country\u2019s equivalent to the F.B.I., issued a statement identifying the officer<\/a> as Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a senior figure in the Russian General Staff who was directly involved in planning operations. The investigators said that they had opened a criminal inquiry into the explosion, which took place in the town of Balashikha, a suburb east of Moscow.<\/p>\n The explosion came as Russian state news agencies reported that Steve Witkoff, President Trump\u2019s special envoy, was probably in Moscow. Mr. Witkoff was expected to conduct another round of high-profile negotiations with President Vladimir V. Putin over ending the war in Ukraine and re-establishing the bilateral relationship between Russia and the United States. Mr. Putin has cast aside Mr. Trump\u2019s calls<\/a> for a quick peace in Ukraine, and Russia\u2019s airstrikes on civilian targets appear to be increasing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Video circulating on social media and verified by The New York Times showed a car exploding and catching fire outside an apartment block, sending a thick plume of smoke into the air. Other footage verified by The Times showed people rushing to the scene as secondary explosions echoed in the distance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Ukrainian authorities had no immediate comment when contacted about the killing.<\/p>\n In February, a prominent pro-Russia separatist figure from Ukraine, Armen Sarkisyan, was killed<\/a> when a bomb exploded inside a gated residence in Moscow. Ukrainian officials did not comment on the blast at the time.<\/p>\n At the end of December, a general in charge of the Russian military\u2019s nuclear and chemical weapons protection forces, Igor Kirillov, was killed by a bomb<\/a> near the entry to a residential building in Moscow. An official with Ukraine\u2019s security service, known as the S.B.U., said at the time that Ukraine was responsible for the killing.<\/p>\n Maria Varenikova and Sanjana Varghese contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n