On Monday, around 7:00 a.m., a Kia Sorento exploded in the courtyard of a residential building in southern Moscow, damaging nearby vehicles. Behind the wheel was Major General of the Russian Army Fanil Sarvarov—a war criminal who oversaw operational training of the Russian Armed Forces and took part in wars in Chechnya, Syria, and Ukraine. Although Sarvarov was hospitalized in critical condition after the blast, his injuries proved fatal, and he died in hospital.
According to Russian media, Russia’s Investigative Committee promptly informed Putin about the incident. Photos published from the scene show the destroyed vehicle and law-enforcement officers working to determine the cause of the explosion.
During the full-scale war against Ukraine, Sarvarov was responsible for preparing Russian Armed Forces personnel for combat. His remit included organizing military exercises and coordinating the work of Defense Ministry structures that ensured the conduct of the war.
Sarvarov was not the first Russian general connected to the war against Ukraine to be killed in the rear over the past year. UA.News compiled information on other generals, propagandists, and collaborators—people who launched missiles, issued criminal orders, and looted homes in Ukrainian villages. All of them, to some degree, believed themselves untouchable. Indeed, they did not die on the front line or go missing in action. They simply ceased to exist—in building entrances, cars, and supposedly “safe” places far from the front line.
This article is about 20 of the most high-profile eliminations of war criminals since February 2022, proving that criminals have names, war has memory, and the statute of impunity is not infinite.
2025: The Aggressor’s Latest Losses
Major General Fanil Sarvarov. On December 22, 2025, the head of the Operational Training Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces was killed in the Russian capital. The cause of death was a car bombing; the injuries were incompatible with life.
A graduate of the Kazan Tank School and the General Staff Academy, he had combat experience in Chechnya and North Ossetia and participated in planning the intervention in Syria (2015–2016). He was a key figure in planning Russia’s strategic operations and coordinating troop actions.
Armen Sarkisyan, founder of the “Arbat” special-purpose battalion. Killed on February 3, 2025. An explosion occurred in Moscow in the entrance hall of the elite residential complex Alye Parusa in north-west Moscow. Sarkisyan and his guards were entering the building when a grenade detonated.
Yevgeny Ritikov, designer of Russian electronic warfare systems. On the night of April 17–18 in Bryansk, Ritikov’s car exploded as he got inside with a colleague. Ritikov headed the design bureau of the Bryansk Electromechanical Plant—a key developer and innovator in creating advanced electronic warfare and electronic intelligence systems for the occupying army. He was responsible, among other things, for modernizing the Russian “Krasukha” electronic warfare complex, one of the most advanced systems in the Russian arsenal.
Yaroslav Moskalyk, Deputy Head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff. He was killed in Balashikha near Moscow. A Volkswagen car exploded on April 25 at around 10:40 a.m. The blast was so powerful that windows in a nearby building were blown out.
“According to available data, the explosion resulted from the detonation of an improvised explosive device filled with shrapnel,” Russia’s Investigative Committee reported.
Manolis Pilavov, former head of the occupation administration of Luhansk. On July 3, news broke of a successful SBU special operation that resulted in Pilavov’s death. The former head of the city’s occupation administration (2014–2023) was killed in a powerful explosion.
Pilavov was not merely an executor but one of the key ideologues behind the creation of the terrorist entity known as the “LNR.” He was part of the inner circle of former militant leader Igor Plotnitsky and directly participated in efforts to overthrow Ukraine’s constitutional order.
Major General Mikhail Gudkov. Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, killed on July 2, 2025, in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian forces delivered a precise strike on an occupiers’ headquarters in the settlement of Korenyevo.
Gudkov had received the post only in spring 2025. He was linked to the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade, whose fighters are notorious for atrocities in Bucha and the torture of prisoners.
2024: Open Season on Executioners and Strategists
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov.On December 17, 2024, an SBU special operation killed the head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops. Kirillov was directly responsible for the mass use of chemical munitions against Ukraine’s Armed Forces and was also among the developers of the TOS-2 “Tosochka” system.
He was killed in Moscow by an explosive device planted under an electric scooter.
Serhii Yevsiukov, former head of the Olenivka penal colony, and his wife. On December 9, 2024, a Toyota SUV carrying Yevsiukov and his wife was blown up in occupied Donetsk. Yevsiukov died at the scene; his wife lost a leg.
Valerii Trankovskyi, Chief of Staff of the 41st Brigade of Missile Boats and Ships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. In November 2024, he was killed when his car exploded in temporarily occupied Crimea. Trankovskyi issued orders for cruise missile launches from the Black Sea against Ukrainian civilian targets, including the strike on Vinnytsia in July 2022 that killed 29 civilians.
Andrii Korotkyi, “head of physical security” of the seized Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. In October, the collaborator was killed in occupied Enerhodar when his car was blown up by an unknown explosive device. According to Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR), Korotkyi was directly involved in organizing repression against plant personnel and committing war crimes against the city’s civilian population.
Major General Pavlo Klymenko. Killed on November 7, 2024, in Donetsk region. He commanded the occupiers’ 5th Brigade and was notorious for creating a concentration-camp-style detention site for his own soldiers at a mine in Donetsk. His subordinates tortured to death American propagandist Russell Bentley and numerous mobilized Russian soldiers.
2023: The End of Prominent Propagandists
Major General Vladimir Zavadsky. Deputy commander of the 14th Army Corps, killed in Ukraine in late November 2023. Russia used his image to advertise contract military service.
Major General Sergei Goryachev. Chief of Staff of the 35th Army, killed in June 2023 on the Zaporizhzhia axis as a result of a missile strike on a command post. He had extensive experience waging war against Ukraine since 2014.
Ilya Kyva, former MP from OPZZh. Shot dead in December 2023 in the Moscow region. Once head of the Socialist Party, an adviser to Interior Minister Avakov, and an MP from the now-banned pro-Russian OPZZh party, Kyva fled to Russia after the full-scale invasion and became an active mouthpiece of Kremlin propaganda. According to numerous media outlets citing security-service sources, his killing was the result of a successful SBU operation. Shortly before his death, Ukrainian justice convicted Kyva in absentia of high treason, sentenced him to 14 years in prison, and placed him on an international wanted list.
2022: The First Steps of Inevitable Retribution
Volodymyr Struk, mayor of Kreminna. Found shot dead on March 2, 2022. After Russian troops entered Luhansk region, he openly supported the occupiers, despite being under scrutiny by Ukrainian justice since 2014 for separatist calls and undermining territorial integrity.
Kyrylo Stremousov, gauleiter of Kherson region. One of the most media-visible traitors and a deputy to Saldo, he died near Henichesk in November 2022. Russian propaganda insists it was a traffic accident, but in Ukraine the possibility of an internal liquidation is considered—plausible given that a month earlier Stremousov publicly lambasted Russian generals as “incompetent” for retreating.
“Black Friday,” September 16, 2022: a fatal day for traitors in two occupied cities:
In Luhansk, an improvised bomb exploded directly in an office, killing the occupation “prosecutor general” Serhii Horenko and his aide Kateryna Steglenko.
The same day in Berdiansk, the occupation “deputy mayor” Oleh Boiko was shot dead in his own garage along with his wife Liudmyla Boiko, a key figure in preparing the sham referendum.
Darya Dugina, Russian publicist. In summer 2022, she was killed in a car explosion involving a vehicle belonging to her father, Alexander Dugin—known as the “chief ideologue of the Kremlin” and architect of Rashism.
The FSB quickly claimed to have “solved” the case, accusing Ukrainian special services and naming a Ukrainian citizen as the perpetrator who allegedly fled Russia. Ukrainian authorities officially rejected all accusations as unfounded.
Oleksii Kovalyov, former MP. Found dead in his own home on August 28, 2022. Elected to Ukraine’s parliament in 2019 as a single-mandate MP from Servant of the People, Kovalyov became one of the most notorious political defectors. After the invasion, he went to occupied Kherson region, initially posing as a volunteer. The masks soon fell: he officially sided with the enemy and received a “post” as deputy head of the occupation administration in Hola Prystan.
He publicly declared intentions to fully integrate Kherson’s agricultural potential into Russia’s economy. Due to clear collaboration, Servant of the People expelled him, and law enforcement opened a treason case.
The collaborator’s end was bloody: the cause of death was gunshot wounds. The body of a 38-year-old woman (likely his partner) was also found in the house with stab wounds.
Earlier, in Moscow, a car belonging to an employee of the Stelmach Polyus Research Institute—an institution specializing in laser systems for high-precision weapons—exploded. The incident occurred on December 1 in the courtyard of a residential complex in Moskovsky, part of New Moscow.
