Russian paramilitary leader killed in Moscow Blast

The leader of a paramilitary group pro-ruso in eastern Ukraine died in the hospital after being injured in an explosion in Moscow on Monday morning, Russian media said.

Armen Sargsyan, the leader of the “Arbat” battalion, was seriously injured after an explosion in the entrance hall of a residential building in the northwest of Moscow, 12 km (7 miles) of the Kremlin.

He was evacuated to a helicopter hospital and placed in intensive care after the explosion, but finally succumbed to his wounds, according to generally reliable telegram sources.

According to reports, others, including one of Armen Sargsyan’s bodyguards, were also seriously injured, and some sources say that another person had died.

In December, the Ukrainian security service SBU said that “the head of the crime”, Mr. Sargsyan, was suspected of “recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine” and added that he had been in a list of international searches since May 2014 by His participation in murders carried out in the center of kyiv.

The SBU added that Mr. Sargsyan was part of the internal circle of former Ukrainian fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych.

“The attempted murder against Sarkisyan was carefully planned and ordered. The investigators are currently identifying those who ordered the crime,” Tass said citing an official of the law.

Shared images on social networks show debris and plaster scattered through a very damaged entrance hall with windows and doors.

Olga Voronova, a mother of three 36 -year -old children who lived in the building next to the explosion, told the AFP news agency that she was “very scared” and did not understand how the explosion could have happened.

“We have quite serious security guards, they ask each car at the control points, we ask for passes for the guests, even for family members,” he said.

Sargsyan was born in Gorlovka, a city in the Donetsk region of Ukraine that has been occupied by Russia since 2014.

In a telegram post confirming his death, the mayor of the city, Ivan Prikhodko, said that “Sargsyan’s most significant achievement was the creation and leadership of a separate special forces battalion.”

Prikhodko said Sargsyan was also the head of the Boxing Federation of the Popular Republic of Donetsk.

It is known that the “Arbat” battalion operates in the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukrainian troops are still present after launching a surprise offensive in August.

There have been a series of attacks on high profile supporters of the Invasion of Russia of Ukraine, in Moscow and in occupied areas.

The high Russian Naval Officer Valery Tankovsky and Russian prison chief Sergei Yevsyukov died after cars pumps exploded in Ukraine occupied by Russian at the end of 2024.

And in December, a high -ranking general in the Russian armed forces and its assistant They were killed in Moscow for the Ukraine Security ServiceA Ukrainian source told the BBC.