Sargsyan
© UnknownArmen Sargsyan, an ethnic Armenian military leader in eastern Ukraine who founded the pro-Russian paramilitary group Arbat
Another mysterious assassination of a pro-Russian official has rocked Moscow. Over the nearly three-years of the Ukraine war, there's been a string of bombings and attacks against notable figures, such as the December killing of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov by a scooter bomb placed outside his Moscow apartment, or the 2022 killing of Darya Dugina in a car bombing likely intended for her father Aleksandr Dugin.

On Monday an explosion ripped through a Moscow apartment block located about 7 miles from the Kremlin complex, killing Armen Sarkisyan, a well-known leader of a pro-Russian military faction which has long been operational in eastern Ukraine. One of his bodyguards was also killed and others were injured.

State-run TASS called the blast an "assassination attempt" - after which Sarkisyan later died in the hospital.

TASS quoted a police official as saying:
"The assassination attempt on Sarkisyan was carefully planned and was ordered. Investigators are currently identifying those who ordered the crime."
Whoever orchestrated the attack had to make it past layers of security. BBC describes of the scene as follows:
Images shared on social media show rubble and plaster strewn across a heavily damaged entrance hall with blown-out windows and doorways.

Olga Voronova, a 36-year-old mother of three who lived in the building next door to the explosion, told AFP news agency that she was "very scared" and did not understand how the blast could've happened: "We have quite serious security guards, they ask every car at the checkpoints, we order passes for guests, even for family members."
Such a sophisticated covert bombing was likely the work of Ukrainian intelligence, or possibly US or Western intelligence (or possibly working in tandem with Kiev), or else a criminal element or even 'inside job' potentially based on internal Russian politics.

As for Ukraine, it's SBU security services had essentially considered Sarkisyan a top terrorist who ran "illegal armed groups" and founded pro-Russian separatist militias.

He's been on a most wanted list since 2014 for allegedly "organizing murders" during the Maidan events. He's also been widely dubbed a "crime boss" in Ukrainian media.
building
© Russian media/Al JazeeraCourtyard of a residential building that was hit by a blast in Moscow, February 3, 2025
The mayor of the town where Sakisyan was born - Horlivka, a city in Ukraine's Donetsk region declared that Sargsyan's "most significant achievement was the creation and leadership of a separate special forces battalion."