Three Killed in Moscow Car Explosion Near Police Vehicle on Yeletskaya Street
On 24 December 2025, a car explosion occurred on Yeletskaya Street in Moscow near a police vehicle at about 1:30 am local time. The blast resulted in the deaths of two traffic police officers, Lt Ilya Klimanov, 24, and Lt Maxim Gorbunov, 25, as well as a third individual. Gorbunov was married and father to a nine-month-old daughter.
Russian Telegram channels close to security services reported that the third fatality was believed to be the person who planted the explosive device. Following the incident, a crime scene was established, CCTV footage is being reviewed, and the area has been cordoned off as investigations are ongoing.
An anonymous official from Ukraine’s main intelligence agency, the GUR, stated that the attack was carried out as part of a Ukrainian operation. However, Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for an earlier nearby incident in which an officer was killed.
The blast took place less than half a mile from the location where Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was killed earlier in the week. Russian officials described Sarvarov’s death as a probable Ukrainian assassination, but no confirmed link has been established between his death and the recent Moscow bombing.
Since the start of the war, Ukrainian intelligence services have targeted numerous Russian officers, though details about clandestine resistance cells remain limited.
