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.

• 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.

• Over half of products duty-free from day one.
• New Zealand to offer 1,667 temporary work visas annually.
• Extra 1,000 working-holiday visas each year.

New Zealand and India struck a free trade agreement, both governments said on Monday, making it easier for New Zealand’s exporters to reach the world’s biggest population and an economy forecast to be worth NZ$12 trillion ($7 trillion) by 2030.

The agreement eliminates or reduces tariffs on 95% of New Zealand’s exports to India with more than half of products to be duty free on day one of the pact, improving access to India’s rapidly expanding middle class, the New Zealand government said.

New Zealand would offer some 1,667 temporary work visas a year for people in areas where it has skills shortages, including doctors, nurses, teachers, technology professionals and engineers, and another 1,000 places a year in its working holiday visa program, matching Australia’s free trade pact with India.

“The gains are wide-ranging and significant,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

“India is the world’s most populous country and is the fastest-growing big economy, and that creates opportunities for jobs for Kiwis, exports and growth,” he added.

The countries expect to sign the agreement in the first half of 2026, the New Zealand government said.

New Zealand’s trade minister, Todd McClay, said the deal put the country on an equal or better footing than other countries which traded with India and “will deliver thousands of jobs and billions in additional exports”.

The Indian government confirmed the pact without giving further detail. India’s trade minister was scheduled to speak with reporters later on Monday.

The deal makes good on a 2022 election promise from New Zealand’s governing National Party that if elected it would finalise a New Zealand-India free trade agreement in its first term.

But parliamentary approval was not immediately assured. New Zealand First, with which the Nationals have a coalition and which holds eight of the 123 seats, would vote against the deal, said NZ First leader Winston Peters.

The deal “gives too much away, especially on immigration, and does not get enough in return for New Zealanders, including on dairy”, Peters said.

Two-way trade between the two countries totalled NZ$3.14 billion in 2024, dominated by pharmaceuticals from India and forestry and agricultural products from New Zealand, including wool, logs and apples.