By Сергiй Дубина
Published on
On Thursday, a Russian serviceman was killed in a car explosion in St Petersburg, Russia. The local office of the Investigative Committee said the cause had not yet been established and announced that it had opened a murder investigation.
The blast comes as Moscow accuses Kyiv of carrying out a series of killings of Russian military personnel since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago.
The Ukrainian armed forces have claimed responsibility for some of the killings, while remaining silent about others.
The attacks have involved booby-trapped cars, explosives hidden in scooters and shootings.
The serviceman, whose rank has not been officially disclosed, died as a result of “a car explosion in the Pushkinsky district” of St Petersburg, the Investigative Committee said in a press release.
“A murder investigation into the serviceman’s death has been launched,” the committee added.
“At present, investigators and forensic experts, together with operational officers, are examining the scene and a number of necessary forensic tests are being ordered. All the circumstances of what happened are being clarified,” it said on Telegram.
Russian media reported that the explosion took place in the settlement of Shushary on Kolpinskoye Highway. They said the man killed was a colonel in the Russian armed forces and chief navigator of the 6th Air and Air Defence Army.
According to Russian media, the serviceman was alone and driving the car when it exploded. The explosive device had been attached to the underside of the car and was detonated remotely as he was leaving a courtyard. He died at the scene. The moment of the blast was captured by an intercom camera.
On 27 August 2026, in the Slavyanka district of the same settlement, a lieutenant colonel, also from the air and air defence forces, was blown up together with his wife. Both lost their legs. The lieutenant colonel died at the scene, while his wife was saved by doctors.
At the time, a 24-year-old Russian woman who had left for Turkey after the explosion was suspected of planting the bomb. Law enforcement agencies did not officially comment on the progress of the investigation and did not release the victim’s name or other details.
The man killed in August was reportedly (source in Russian) 43-year-old Sergei Sechkov, who served in the 332nd Separate Guards Helicopter Regiment. His father confirmed to the independent Russian outlet Agentstvo that his son had died in the blast.
In May 2022, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defence Ministry accused (source in Russian) servicemen from the regiment of carrying out missile and bomb strikes on Ukrainian civilians on the Slobozhansky axis.
Series of targeted attacks on Russian military personnel
The highest-ranking Russian officer to have been targeted since the start of the full-scale war was Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was killed near his flat in Moscow in December 2024.
On that occasion, Ukraine explicitly claimed responsibility for killing Kirillov, whom Kyiv accused of ordering the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident “a serious failure” on the part of Russia’s security services.
In April 2025, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalyk was killed when his car exploded in Balashikha, near Moscow.
In December that year, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was blown up outside his home, just 16km from the Kremlin.
In February 2026, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, first deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Russian General Staff, was shot at in the lobby of a Moscow apartment building as he was leaving his flat.
In April, a battalion commander from a training communications unit was killed when a device planted in a post box exploded on the grounds of a military garrison in Russia’s Khabarovsk region.
On 1 August 2026, Aleksandr Chaiko, who had been appointed head of Russia’s Aerospace Forces in May, was named as the intended target of a high-profile assassination attempt. The blast took place at the Balzi Rossi restaurant in one of Stalin’s “Seven Sisters” skyscrapers, on Barrikadnaya Street.