Russian soldiers keep getting blown up by car bombs - Newsweek

A Russian air force officer has been killed by a suspected car bomb, according to reports, making him the latest senior military figure in the country who has died in similar circumstances.

The blast took place on Thursday morning in St. Petersburg, less than three months after a car explosion killed another officer in Russia’s second city.

The TV channel 78 reported that the dead colonel was the chief navigator of the 6th Air and Air Defense Army although as of Thursday morning, he has not been officially named.

Ukrainian outlet United 24 said on X the deceased was Dmitry Lobodin, although this has not been independently confirmed.

"He directly participated in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. War has consequence," the United 24 X post said next to his image.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a murder case.

Today's blast follows the deaths of other senior Russian military figures in bomb explosions over the last couple of years. Moscow says Ukrainian intelligence services carried out the attacks.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Investigative Committee and Ukraine's foreign intelligence service for comment.

The independent Telegram channel Fontanka reported that the officer was killed while driving in the center of St. Petersburg around 7 a.m. Thursday.

Pre-dawn footage posted to social media showed a blast in the distance on Thursday morning although the car could not be seen. Separate video showed the aftermath of the explosion.

Traffic was blocked as emergency services attended the scene.

Ukraine does not usually claim responsibility for attacks on Russian territory but the latest death will be linked to the war Russia started.

Former Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko posted on X that the deceased officer oversaw a unit that has "carried out multiple attacks on Ukrainian civilians, especially in Kharkiv region."

United 24 posted on X there is "no safe distance from the consequences of war."

The Investigative Committee of Russia said the man died "as a result of a car explosion" and has launched a murder investigation.

"All the circumstances of the incident are being established," it said in a statement carried by state news agency Tass.

A number of other senior Russian military figures with ties to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, have also died in bomb explosions over the last couple of years.

Igor Kirillov and his aide were killed after explosives in a scooter detonated as he left his residential building in south-eastern Moscow on December 17, 2024.

Kirillov was head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection troops and was accused by the West of overseeing the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield.

Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in April 2025, in a car bomb explosion in the Balashikha suburb east of central Moscow.

Russia's FSB said it had subsequently arrested Ignat Kuzin, whom it described as a Ukrainian spy.

On 22 December 2025, another lieutenant general, Fanil Sarvarov, died in Moscow after a bomb underneath his car detonated. Ukraine was again accused of being behind the killing.

There have also been similar incidents this year.

On June 9, Damir Davydov was killed in a car bombing near to where Moskalik lived. He was responsible for supplying missiles and artillery ammunition for the Russian Ministry of Defense.

On August 27, Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Sechkov, 43, from Russia's Aerospace Forces, was killed in a car bomb explosion in St. Petersburg. His wife was injured in the explosion.

Russian media claimed that he had reported to his superiors that he was "on a hit list" and he had been accused of war crimes by the Ukrainian civil society group Myrotvorets.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Henry Holloway and Tony Phillips.