An east Ukrainian crime boss and separatist needed by Kyiv was killed with one different particular person in a blast at a luxurious residential complicated in Moscow on Monday, Russian media reported.
Armen Sarkisian, a recognized mafia boss from east Ukraine who had shaped a battalion to combat towards Kyiv, is the newest goal in a string of explosions on Russian soil.
Russia has been hit by a collection of killings and mysterious blasts since launching its offensive in Ukraine in 2022.
Sarkisian has been needed by Kyiv since 2014 and Ukraine’s SBU safety service had in December declared him a suspect in “recruiting prisoners to combat in Ukraine.”
“Sarkisian died in hospital after an assassination in Moscow,” the TASS information company reported, after Russian media initially mentioned he was significantly wounded within the blast.
Russian police earlier mentioned one different particular person was killed within the “incident” on the complicated in northwest Moscow.
Russian legislation enforcement officers stand in entrance of the broken entrance to a residential constructing following a blast in Moscow on February 3, 2025.
TATYANA MAKEYEVA/AFP by way of Getty Photos
The Kremlin mentioned particular companies had been working on the scene and declined to remark whereas “info was being clarified.”
Kyiv had not but commented.
In December, it mentioned it was behind the killing of Russian military common Igor Kirillov in Moscow, its most audacious assault thus far. Final Might, the U.S. State Division introduced sanctions towards Kirillov’s unit, saying the U.S. had recorded using chloropicrin, a poison gasoline first deployed in World Battle I, towards Ukrainian troops.
“I’m very scared”
Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported that an “explosive machine went off when he (Sarkisian) entered the constructing with safety guards,” including that one of many guards had died.
Footage launched by Russia’s essential investigative company, the Investigative Committee, confirmed a constructing corridor with glass doorways shattered and suspended ceilings torn up.
The Committee mentioned it opened a felony probe into the explosion on the fees of homicide by means injurious to the general public and tried homicide of two or extra folks.
The red-brick high-rise constructing was closed off by police and a helicopter was seen arriving on the scene.
Andrei, a 37-year-old supervisor who was close by on the time, mentioned his colleagues had “jumped from their seats” on the sound of the blast, earlier than going outdoors and seeing smoke.
The explosion was the second killing on the streets of Moscow in lower than two months, with Kirillov dying after an explosive machine hooked up to a scooter went off outdoors a residential constructing.
Olga Voronova, a 36-year-old mom of three who lived within the constructing subsequent door to the explosion, was apprehensive.
“I’m very scared,” she instructed AFP.
“I do not perceive how this occurred, we’ve got fairly critical safety guards, they ask each automobile on the checkpoints, we order passes for visitors, even for members of the family,” the shaken lady mentioned. “So I do not perceive all this, it’s extremely scary.”
Russian media mentioned Sarkisian had in 2022 shaped a unit named “ArBAT” to combat towards Ukraine.
In line with the SBU, Sarkisian was “shut” to Ukraine’s ousted ex-leader Viktor Yanukovych and has been on a needed checklist since 2014, accused of “organizing murders” throughout Kyiv’s pro-EU revolution.
The SBU mentioned Sarkisian oversaw prisons within the occupied Donetsk area, from which he recruited convicts.
“Efforts are underway to deliver the offender to justice for his crimes towards Ukraine,” it mentioned in December.
Kommersant reported that the unit Sarkisian had shaped was made up of “round 500 folks”, most of whom are ethnic Armenians.
In line with Russian media, Sarkisian was born in Armenia however moved to east Ukraine’s metropolis of Gorlivka at a younger age and likewise used the pseudonym of Armen Gorlovsky, a reference to the commercial metropolis.
Gorlivka has been beneath pro-Russian separatist management since 2014.
Different focused assaults
Since Russia invaded, a number of distinguished figures have been killed in focused assaults believed to have been carried out by Ukraine.
In December, a bomb planted beneath a automobile within the Russian-occupied Ukrainian metropolis of Donetsk killed Sergei Yevsyukov, the previous head of the Olenivka Jail the place dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of struggle died in a missile strike in July 2022. One different particular person was injured within the blast. Russian authorities mentioned they detained a suspect within the assault.
Darya Dugina, a commentator on Russian TV channels and the daughter of Kremlin-linked nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin, died in a 2022 automobile bombing that investigators suspected was geared toward her father.
Vladlen Tatarsky, a preferred navy blogger, died in April 2023, when a statuette given to him at a celebration in St. Petersburg exploded. A Russian lady, who mentioned she offered the figurine on orders of a contact in Ukraine, was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in jail.
In December 2023, Illia Kiva, a former pro-Moscow Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia, was shot and killed close to Moscow. The Ukrainian navy intelligence lauded the killing, warning that different “traitors of Ukraine” would share the identical destiny.
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