Two Russian police officers killed in Moscow blast near site of general’s assassination

Two police officers were killed in an overnight explosion in Moscow that occurred when they tried to stop a suspicious person, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement Wednesday.

"An explosive device was triggered" as the officers approached the suspect, who was near their service vehicle, the statement said. The blast occurred close to the site where a Russian general was killed earlier this week.

Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head of the Russian General Staff's training department, was killed when the bomb, which had been placed under his parked car, detonated in a residential quarter of southern Moscow.

AFP reporters at the scene saw a mangled white Kia SUV, its doors and back window blown out. The frame was twisted and charred from the blast.

Top negotiators from both Russia and Ukraine were in Miami over the weekend for separate meetings with US officials seeking to break the deadlock on a deal to end almost four years of fighting, triggered by Moscow's all-out offensive on its neighbour in 2022.

Kyiv has not commented on the blast, the latest in a string of similar incidents, but Russian investigators said they suspected it was "linked" to "Ukrainian special forces".

The attack had the hallmarks of other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed or are widely believed to have been orchestrated by Ukraine.

AFP