Pro-Russian Leader Armen Sargsyan Dies in Moscow Bombing Attack

 

Pro-Russian Leader Armen Sargsyan Dies in Moscow Bombing Attack

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Russian media reported that Armen Sargsyan, the leader of a pro-Russian paramilitary group in eastern Ukraine, died in hospital after being injured in a bombing in Moscow early Monday morning.

Armen Sargsyan, the leader of the "Arbat" battalion, was seriously injured in a bombing in the entrance hall of a residential building northwest of Moscow, 12 kilometers from the Kremlin.

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He was taken by helicopter to the hospital and was taken to intensive care after the blast, but later died from his injuries, according to reliable sources on Telegram.

 

Other injured people, including Armen Sargsyan's bodyguard, were also reported to have been seriously injured, with some sources saying that one more person died.

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Ukraine has yet to comment on the bombing.

In December, Ukraine's SBU security service said that the "chief of the criminal group" Sargsyan was a suspect in a case of "recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine", adding that he had been on the international suspect list since May 2014 due to his involvement in a murder case in central Kyiv.

  

The SBU security service of Ukraine added that Sargsyan was part of the inner circle of fugitive former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

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"The attempt to assassinate Sargsyan was carefully planned and ordered. Investigators are currently identifying the mastermind behind the crime," TASS quoted law enforcement officials as saying.

  

Footage shared on social media showed debris and plaster scattered across the badly damaged entrance hall, with windows and doors blown out.

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Olga Voronova, a 36-year-old mother of three who lives in a building next door to the blast, told AFP she was "terrified" and could not understand how the explosion could have happened.

 

"We have very strict security. They question every car at the checkpoint. We order passes for guests, even for family members," she said.

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Sarsyan was born in Horlivka, a city in Ukraine's Donetsk region that has been occupied by Russia since 2014.

 

In a Telegram post confirming his death, the city's mayor, Ivan Prikhodko, said: "Sarsyan's most important achievement is the creation and leadership of a separate special forces battalion."