St. Petersburg car bombing targets senior Russian air defense officers

A car bombing in St. Petersburg on Thursday morning killed the driver and potentially targeted senior commanders from Russia’s 6th Air Force and Air Defense Army, according to the Kyiv Post. The explosion occurred around 7 a.m. in the Slavyanka neighborhood after the vehicle traveled roughly 300 meters, killing the sole occupant at the scene.

Ukrainian monitoring channel Supernova identified three colonels from the 6th Army—which oversees airspace across northwestern and central Russia—as possible victims. The list includes Deputy Commander for Military-Political Affairs Col. Andrei Khodykin, Chief Navigator Col. Dmitry Lobodin, and Deputy Commander for Aviation Col. Viktor Pozdnyakov. Russian media outlet 78.ru initially reported that the army’s chief navigator was inside the vehicle before editing the post to remove the specific position.

While the victim’s identity has not been independently confirmed, all three officers are listed in Ukraine’s Book of Executioners for alleged war crimes. Pozdnyakov is accused of ordering airstrikes on civilian areas in northeastern Ukraine, while Lobodin participated in the 2022 invasion and Khodykin oversaw troop indoctrination.

Investigation points to cross-border smuggling and suspect escape

Russian investigators suspect a 31-year-old St. Petersburg resident planted the improvised explosive device beneath the car, according to local news outlet Fontanka. Authorities allege the suspect spent a month working as a laborer at a nearby hypermarket, potentially using the job as cover to track the officer’s routine.

Law enforcement officials reported that the suspect retrieved the explosives from a hidden cache after the device was allegedly transported into Russia via a balloon launched from a Baltic state. The bomb was detonated remotely, either by a motion sensor or an operator watching the vehicle, shattering the windows of a nearby bus without injuring its passengers.

By the time Russian authorities identified the suspect, he had already fled the country. Investigators tracked his departure on a flight to Turkey before he traveled onward to Moldova, a country whose authorities do not extradite suspects wanted by Moscow.

Escalating pattern of targeted assassinations inside Russia

Thursday’s blast marks the second car bombing targeting a Russian military officer in the Slavyanka district in less than three months. On August 27, a vehicle carrying 43-year-old Maj. Sergey Sechkov and his wife exploded in the same neighborhood, killing the officer—whose helicopter regiment was accused of airstrikes on Sumy and Kharkiv—and critically injuring his spouse.

The incident fits a wider pattern of explosions targeting senior Russian military personnel and defense engineers across Russia and occupied territories. In August, an explosion at Moscow’s Balzi Rossi restaurant killed five people in an apparent attempt on Aerospace Forces Commander-in-Chief Gen. Alexander Chaiko, while Navy Capt. 1st Rank Robert Shageev was killed in Sevastopol.

Similar operations previously killed General Staff official Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik and electronic warfare engineer Yevgeny Rytikov in separate car bombings near Moscow in April 2025. Ukrainian intelligence and partisan networks have repeatedly targeted officers linked to war crimes, though Kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the latest St. Petersburg attack.

This article is made and published by Lauge Risom Koch, who may have used AI in the preparation