Armen Sarkisyan, the Moscow-backed collaborator from Ukraine’s Donetsk region, died in hospital after being injured in an explosion in an elite residential complex in Moscow on Monday, according to Russian state-run outlets.
A blast in an upscale residential block in Moscow killed one person and wounded four others on Monday morning, Russian news agencies reported, citing emergency officials.Â
According to Russian media, the blast was caused by an unidentified device that detonated just as a man with bodyguards entered the lobby of the Scarlet Sails (“Alye Parusa”) complex on the banks of the Moskva River just 12 km from the Kremlin.
The suspected target and the sole person killed in the explosion has been identified as Armen Sarkisyan, a pro-Russian collaborator from the Donetsk region wanted by Ukraine.Â
A native of the Russia-occupied town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region, Sarkisyan has been wanted by Kyiv since 2014.Â
He has been placed on the international wanted list since 2014 for organising murders in central Kyiv, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said.
A crime boss and a close associate of Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, Sarkisyan reportedly organised the hired pro-government thugs, known as “titushky,” who harassed and attacked pro-EuroMaidan protesters during the Revolution of Dignity of 2014.Â
After the full-scale war broke out, he founded the Separate Guards Special Purpose Battalion “Arbat” to fight against Ukraine. The unit is reportedly made up of ethnic Armenians, many of whom have criminal records.
In December, Ukraine’s SBU security service said he had also formed a pro-Russian military unit made up of local convict fighters and had organised purchases of supplies for frontline units. These forces fought first in Toretsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk and then in Kursk, the Russian border region partially controlled by Kyiv since last August.
Sarkisyan was initially reported killed, but the Russian media later clarified he was transported to the hospital and had to undergo a leg amputation.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which launched an investigation into the explosion, later confirmed Sarkisyan died in the hospital.
Footage released by Russia’s main investigative agency, the Investigative Committee, showed a building hall with glass doors shattered and suspended ceilings torn up.