A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow on Monday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war.

Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces”.

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

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.

The scene had been cordoned off by security forces, and investigators were sifting through the debris. Eyewitnesses reported a loud bang.

“We absolutely didn’t expect it. We thought we were safe, and then this happens right next to us,” local resident, Tatiana, 74, told AFP.

“The windows rattled, you could tell it was an explosion,” said Grigory, 70, who also declined to give his surname.

“We need to treat it more calmly. It’s the cost of war,” he added.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was “working through various lines of enquiry into the murder. One of them involves the possible organisation of the crime by Ukrainian special services.”

Sarvarov fought in the Russian army’s campaigns in the North Caucasus, including Chechnya in the 1990s, according to his official biography on the defence ministry’s website.

He also commanded Russian forces in Syria in 2015-16.

Talks intensify

The Kremlin said Putin had been informed about Monday’s killing, which came after three days of talks in Miami as the United States intensifies its efforts to broker an end to the four-year war.

Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and US special envoy Steve Witkoff hailed “progress” in the negotiations on Sunday.

Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev also met with the US team, which included Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Witkoff had also called those meetings “productive and constructive.”

An initial 28-point plan to end the war put forward by US President Donald Trump adhered to Moscow’s core demands, triggering panic in Kyiv and European capitals.

Ukraine and its allies have since been working to refine the plan, though Kyiv says it is still being asked to make massive concessions, such as giving up the entire eastern Donbas region to Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed scepticism over whether Russia really wants to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands and decimated eastern and southern Ukraine.

The Kremlin on Monday also denied that it wanted to recreate the Soviet Union, seize the whole of Ukraine and more land in eastern Europe after Reuters reported that US intelligence had concluded Putin seeks much more than just control over eastern Ukraine.

Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has been blamed for several attacks targeting Russian military officials and pro-Kremlin figures in Russia and in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

A car blast near Moscow in April killed General Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy of the General Staff.

In December 2024, Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian radiological, chemical and biological defence forces, was killed when a booby-trapped electric scooter exploded in Moscow, an attack claimed by Ukraine’s SBU security service.

A Russian military blogger, Maxim Fomin, was killed when a statuette exploded in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April 2023.

And in August 2022, a car bomb killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin.

• ‘Akhand Hindu Rashtra Sena’ holds protests outside Babgladesh HC.
• Miscreants allowed to carry out activities outside HC perimeters.
• Dhaka’s FO terms protest “unjustifiable” and “highly regrettable”.

Amid the public uproar over the killing of prominent Bangladeshi student leader Sharif Osman Hadi, Dhaka has rejected India’s stance on the protest outside the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi.

Terming the incident “unjustifiable” and “highly regrettable”, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the incident cannot be labelled “misleading propaganda” — as argued by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

“The miscreants were allowed to carry out their activities right outside the perimeters of the HC, creating panic among the personnel inside the complex,” said Bangladesh’s foreign office.

Dhaka’s response comes as a protest was held outside the Bangladesh HC under the banner of “Akhand Hindu Rashtra Sena” which New Delhi has said was against the killing of Dipu Chandra Das and for the protection of minorities in Bangladesh.

Das, a garment factory worker, was beaten to death on December 18 in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, on allegations of blasphemy, after which his body was also set ablaze, reported Prothom Alo.

In a statement, India’s MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “There was no attempt to breach the fence or create a security situation at any time. The police stationed at the spot dispersed the group after a few minutes”.

“We have noted misleading propaganda in sections of the Bangladesh media [….] Fact is that about 20-25 youth gathered in front of Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi on December 20,” added Jaiswal.

“The police stationed at the spot dispersed the group after a few minutes. Visual evidence of these events is available publicly for all to see. India is committed to ensure the safety of foreign Missions/Posts in its territory in accordance with the Vienna Convention,” the statement further claimed, noting that New Delhi continues to “keep a close watch on the evolving situation in Bangladesh” and that its “officials remain in touch with Bangladesh authorities and have conveyed to them our strong concerns at the attacks on minorities”.

However, contrary to New Delhi’s stance on the protest, the Bangladesh mission officials say that the demonstrators raised anti-Bangladesh slogans and issued threats against Bangladesh High Commissioner M Riaz Hamidullah.

Countering New Delhi’s stance on the protest, Bangladesh’s foreign office said that its HC was not given advance notice on the “organised event”.

“We reject the attempt of Indian authorities to depict an isolated attack on a Bangladeshi citizen, who happens to belong to the Hindu community, as attacks on minorities,” it maintained while rebuking New Delhi’s stance on the matter.

The protest outside the Bangladesh HC comes amidst public uproar in Bangladesh over the killing of prominent Bangladeshi student leader Sharif Osman Hadi.

Hadi, 32, was shot in the head by masked assailants in Dhaka while launching his campaign for the elections. He was a spokesperson for the Inquilab Mancha, or Platform for Revolution, and participated in the protests that overthrew Hasina.

His death triggered mass protests with mobs even attacking the Indian Assistant High Commission in Chittagong, as well as setting fire to multiple newspapers’ outlets in Dhaka.

Critics accused the publications of favouring neighbouring India, where Bangladesh’s ousted PM Sheikh Hasina has taken refuge since fleeing Dhaka in the wake of the 2024 uprising.

• Pilots shut down engine, aircraft lands safely in Delhi.
• DGCA orders probe into Air India Boeing 777 incident.
• Engine oil pressure drops to zero after take-off: DGCA.
  

BENGALURU: An Air India Boeing 777 aircraft had to turn back after a drop in oil pressure forced the pilots to turn off one of the jet’s engines, India’s aviation regulator said on Monday.

The aircraft, which was headed to India’s financial capital of Mumbai, landed safely back in Delhi and the incident will be investigated, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement. Modern aircraft are designed to safely fly and land on a single engine, if required.

Air India has been under intense scrutiny this year after the June 12 crash of a Boeing Dreamliner killed 260 people. The DGCA has flagged multiple safety lapses at the airline, which was previously owned by the government till 2022.

An Air India investigation into why one of its planes conducted commercial flights without an airworthiness permit found “systemic failures”, with the airline admitting it needed to do better on compliance, Reuters reported earlier this month.

On Monday, pilots observed a low engine oil pressure on the B777-300ER aircraft’s right-hand engine during flaps retraction after take-off. The pressure shortly thereafter dropped to zero, and the crew shut down the engine and turned back as per procedure, the DGCA said.

“Air India sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused due to this unforeseen situation. The aircraft is undergoing the necessary checks,” an Air India spokesperson said in a statement.

The aircraft is 15 years old and has flown to locations such as Vienna, Vancouver and Chicago, according to Flightradar24. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.