An explosion reportedly killed an east Ukrainian separatist in a luxury apartment complex in Moscow on Monday.
Armen Sarkisyan, who is wanted by the Ukrainian government, was a mafia boss who advocated for east Ukraine to separate from the rest of the nation and join with Russia. At least one other person was killed in the attack, according to NBC News.
Armen Sargasyan, who has long been accused by Ukraine of aiding Russia’s war effort in the country's eastern Donetsk region, died in hospital after he was critically injured, Russia’s Kommersant said. One of his security guards died and three more people were injured in the explosion, the newspaper reported, citing Moscow's health department.
“The assassination attempt on Sarkisyan was carefully planned and was ordered. Investigators are currently identifying those who ordered the crime,” state news agency TASS quoted a law enforcement official as saying.
Major damage to front of the building, with shattered glass and debris strewn across the lobby, could be seen in a video posted to Telegram by the Investigative Committee of Moscow.
😏 All around dirty bastard- Armen Sargsyan, long-wanted by Ukrainian authorities, assassination in Moscow today. Founder of ArBat special forces battalion subordinated to the ruZZian army.
— Claretta Nijhuis (@NijhuisClaretta) February 3, 2025
pic.twitter.com/XQAm3tTPqD
A bombing at a luxury apartment complex in Moscow today; authorities say appears to be assassination attempt, targeting Armen Sarkisian, and his bodyguard. Sarkisian created a militia/battalion that fought in Ukraine alongside separatists. (source: https://t.co/VmSxWjx4qW) pic.twitter.com/gLBUJYOWuW
— Mike Eckel (@Mike_Eckel) February 3, 2025
Sarkisyan was a powerful organized crime boss based in east Ukraine. He has been wanted by the Ukrainian government since 2014 for allegedly orchestrating the murders of several pro-Europe protesters.
The incident comes after Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical defense forces, was killed in another explosion in Moscow in December. It happened when a bomb planted in a scooter exploded near a building he was exiting at the time.
Ukrainian security officials have reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, labeling Kirillov a “legitimate target” for his alleged role in the use of banned chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces.
This act marks the most high-profile assassination of a Russian military official that took place outside of the battlefield.
These are the latest in a long line of assassinations believed to be carried out by Ukraine’s government.
Alexei Kovalev, a former Ukrainian official, was killed in the Russian-occupied town of Hola Prystan in 2022, according to The Moscow Times.
Nearby lay his girlfriend, reportedly badly injured with stab wounds to her neck, and a Mossberg pump-action shotgun.
Prior to Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February, Kovalev was a deputy in the Ukrainian parliament and a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party — but, after much of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region was seized by Russian troops in the first weeks of the invasion, he switched sides.
The Ukrainian government has not taken credit for Sarkisyan’s killing.