Car Bomb Kills Russian Serviceman Near St Petersburg, Investigators Open Murder Case

A Russian military serviceman was killed on Thursday, November 12, after the car he was driving was blown up in the Pushkinsky district of St Petersburg, investigators said. Russia's Investigative Committee said a criminal case had been opened into the murder of a member of the armed forces.

The blast happened in the morning in Shushary, on Kolpinskoye highway in the Pushkinsky district, according to the Main Investigative Directorate for St Petersburg. That office said the blast killed a Russian serviceman and that a murder case had been opened.

What investigators have said

"Investigative authorities have opened a criminal case into the murder of a member of the armed forces," a statement from Russia's Investigative Committee said, quoted by Reuters.

The St Petersburg directorate said: "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."

Reuters reported that video showed military police had sealed off the area while investigators and forensic scientists worked at the scene. A bomb damaged dark blue SUV stood on a road littered with blast debris, with its doors, boot and bonnet open, next to what looked like an empty passenger bus that also appeared to have suffered damage.

Officials have not published the dead man's name. No one has been named by investigators as the person who planted the device, and investigators have not announced an arrest in the case.

What local media report, and what officials have not confirmed

The online Fontanka newspaper reported that the dead man held the rank of colonel. Reuters said it could not independently verify that report, and officials have not identified the serviceman or confirmed his rank in public.

Fontanka also reported that a device fixed under the vehicle was detonated remotely as the officer pulled out of a courtyard at about 7 a.m. local time. The 78 channel reported that he was chief navigator of the 6th Air Force and Air Defence Army. Neither the device account nor the reported role has been confirmed by officials, and this article treats both as reports, not as established facts.

Reports also differ on other details around the scene, so no claim about further injuries is made here. The confirmed toll in the official statements and in the Reuters report is one serviceman killed.

A second killing in the same district

Reuters reported that another serviceman was killed in a car explosion in the same district of St Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, on August 27. Other car bomb attacks have taken place in Moscow and in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, in recent months, Reuters said.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for previous assassinations of senior military officials and people linked to Moscow's war effort. Ukrainian sources have claimed responsibility in some cases and denied others. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on Thursday, Reuters reported.

For now, the public record is narrow. A serviceman is dead, a murder case is open, forensic work is under way at a sealed scene in Shushary, and the man's name, his exact rank and who carried out the attack have not been established by officials.