Russian serviceman killed in St Petersburg car blast, murder case opened

The blast on the Kolpinskoye highway

A car exploded on the morning of Thursday, 12 November, on the Kolpinskoye highway in Shushary, a settlement on the outskirts of St Petersburg. The Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for St Petersburg said the blast killed a Russian serviceman in the Pushkinsky district and opened a murder case. The official statement did not give his rank. Fontanka, a St Petersburg outlet, reported that the dead man was a colonel and that he died at the scene. Traffic on the highway was halted after the blast while emergency services and investigators worked at the site.

Device and identity

According to Fontanka, the victim was alone in the car. The device was reportedly fixed under the vehicle's underside and set off remotely as the officer was pulling out of a courtyard, and the moment of the blast was captured on camera. Officials have not disclosed his identity. The 78 television channel said he was chief navigator of the 6th Air Force and Air Defence Army, a formation a Russian television channel said has carried out several attacks in the Kharkiv region. Unconfirmed reports said a surviving family member may have been nearby and injured.

Investigation

The regional directorate said in a Telegram post:

“Investigators and forensic experts, together with operational officers, are examining the scene and several forensic examinations are being appointed. All circumstances of what happened are being established.”

The origin of the blast was still undetermined in the reporting, and none of the articles names a suspect or a party responsible. Posts with the phrase 'eternal flight' appeared in Russian military circles after the death, which RMF24 said might suggest a link to aviation. That outlet did not confirm the link.

An earlier attack on the same road

In late August, a high-ranking Russian officer died on the same highway when a homemade explosive device in his car went off, and his wife was wounded, according to Deutsche Welle's Russian-language reporting. RMF24 dated a similar incident to 27 August in St Petersburg, describing a car carrying a lieutenant colonel and his wife. In that account the officer died at the scene and his wife was seriously injured and taken to hospital.

Wider context in the war

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, several Russian military officers have been killed inside Russia. BFMTV reported that Ukrainian intelligence services have claimed or been accused of several assassinations and attempts against Russian officers and public figures who back the war. Several Russian generals and Moscow-installed officials in occupied Ukrainian territories have also been killed or wounded in bomb attacks in recent years. None of the reports on this blast links it to any of those cases.