Armen Sargsyan, the leader of the pro-Russian paramilitary group “Arbat” battalion, has been identified as the victim of the bombing in Moscow initially reported. He died in the hospital after sustaining severe injuries in an explosion in Moscow on Monday morning, according to Russian media.
The blast occurred in the entrance hall of a residential building in northwest Moscow, about 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the Kremlin. Sargsyan was airlifted to a hospital and placed in intensive care but later succumbed to his injuries, reports from Telegram channels stated.
Several others, including one of Sargsyan’s bodyguards, were also seriously injured. Some sources reported that another individual had died in the explosion. Ukraine has not yet commented on the incident.
In December, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) described Sargsyan as a “crime boss” and accused him of recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine. He had been on an international wanted list since May 2014 for alleged involvement in murders in central Kyiv. The SBU also claimed he was part of the inner circle of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
“The assassination attempt on Sargsyan was carefully planned and ordered. Investigators are currently identifying those responsible,” Russian news agency TASS quoted a law enforcement official as saying.
Images shared on social media showed extensive damage to the building’s entrance hall, with rubble and shattered glass scattered across the area.
Olga Voronova, a 36-year-old resident of a neighboring building, expressed shock over the incident. “We have strict security measures here. They check every car at the checkpoints, and we have to order passes even for family members,” she told AFP.
Sargsyan was born in Horlivka, a city in Ukraine’s Donetsk region that has been under Russian occupation since 2014. Ivan Prikhodko, the mayor of Horlivka, confirmed Sargsyan’s death in a Telegram post, praising him for founding and leading a special forces battalion. Prikhodko also noted that Sargsyan headed the Boxing Federation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
The “Arbat” battalion has been active in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise offensive in August.
There has been a series of attacks targeting high-profile supporters of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both in Moscow and in occupied territories.
In late 2024, senior Russian naval officer Valery Trankovsky and Russian prison chief Sergei Yevsyukov were killed in car bombings in Russian-occupied Ukraine. In December, a high-ranking Russian general and his assistant were also assassinated in Moscow, reportedly by Ukraine’s security service, a Ukrainian source told the BBC.
