A senior pro-Russian paramilitary leader from eastern Ukraine has been killed in a bomb blast in the lobby of a luxury apartment building in Moscow.
The attack targeted Armen Sarkisyan, who Ukraine has accused of aiding Russia’s war in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Russian media reported.
He was critically injured in the blast and later died in hospital, according to the Kommersant newspaper.
The bomb detonated as Mr Sarkisyan and his bodyguards entered the Scarlet Sails complex in the Russian capital.
One bodyguard was killed and three more injured, Kommersant reported.
Footage released by Russia’s main investigative agency showed shattered glass doors and debris scattered around the building’s lobby.
State news agency TASS called the bombing a well-planned assassination.
The attack “was carefully planned and was ordered,” a police official said, according to the agency. “Investigators are currently identifying those who ordered the crime.”
Russian authorities said a criminal case had been launched into the blast.
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‘Crime boss’
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service previously described Mr Sarkisyan, who was born in Armenia, as a “crime boss” in the Donetsk region, which Russia has largely controlled since 2014. It also said he was officially suspected of participating in and aiding “illegal armed groups”.
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The SBU said Mr Sarkisyan had formed a pro-Russian military unit made up of local convict fighters and organised purchases of supplies for frontline units.
It said in 2022 he founded a pro-Russian paramilitary unit composed mostly of fellow ethnic Armenians to fight against Kyiv’s forces.
In December, Ukraine claimed a bomb blast outside a Moscow apartment building that killed the Russian General Igor Kirillov.
It has not yet commented on the latest blast in Moscow.
