Russian officer killed by car bomb in St Petersburg as murder investigation begins

On Thursday, a Russian serviceman was killed in a car explosion in St Petersburg, Russia. The local office of the Investigative Committee said the cause had not yet been established and announced that it had opened a murder investigation.The blast comes as Moscow accuses Kyiv of carrying out a series of killings of Russian military personnel since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago.The Ukrainian armed forces have claimed responsibility for some of the killings, while remaining silent about others.The attacks have involved booby-trapped cars, explosives hidden in scooters and shootings.The serviceman, whose rank has not been officially disclosed, died as a result of “a car explosion in the Pushkinsky district” of St Petersburg, the Investigative Committee said in a press release.“A murder investigation into the serviceman’s death has been launched,” the committee added.“At present, investigators and forensic experts, together with operational officers, are examining the scene and a number of necessary forensic tests are being ordered. All the circumstances of what happened are being clarified,” it said on Telegram.Russian media reported that the explosion took place in the settlement of Shushary on Kolpinskoye Highway. They said the man killed was a colonel in the Russian armed forces and chief navigator of the 6th Air and Air Defence Army.According to Russian media, the serviceman…