A Russian serviceman was killed in a car explosion in the Pushkinsky District of St Petersburg on Thursday morning, November 12, investigators said, and a criminal case for murder has been opened. The blast happened in Shushary, a settlement on the southern outskirts of Russia's second-largest city.

Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse, Nov 12, 2026

"Investigative authorities have opened a criminal case into the murder of a member of the armed forces," the Main Investigative Directorate of Russia's Investigative Committee for St Petersburg said in a statement. The committee did not disclose the victim's identity or rank, and said investigators were examining the scene and ordering forensic examinations.

Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse, Nov 12, 2026

Media reports: a colonel, a device under the car

Fontanka, a St Petersburg news outlet, reported that the dead man held the rank of colonel and died at the scene. According to Fontanka's account, an explosive device fixed under the vehicle's underside was detonated remotely at about 7:00 a.m. local time as the officer was pulling out of a courtyard near the Lenta hypermarket on Kolpinskoye Highway in the Slavyanka area, and the moment was captured on an intercom camera. Officials have not confirmed the rank, the device details or the reported remote detonation.

Source: Fontanka via Pollar News, Nov 12, 2026

The 78 television channel reported that the dead officer was the chief navigator of the 6th Air Force and Air Defence Army. That identification comes from media reporting only; the Investigative Committee has not named the victim, no suspect has been named in the reports reviewed, and no party has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Second such killing on the same highway

The blast recalls a similar explosion on Kolpinskoye Highway on August 27, which killed a lieutenant colonel serving in air defence units while his wife, who was nearby, survived, according to reporting by Meduza and Fontanka. Investigators have not publicly linked the two cases, and the origin of Thursday's blast was still undetermined in the reporting reviewed.

The killing came on the same morning that US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin, a day after US-mediated Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi ended with a prisoner-exchange agreement but no breakthrough on territory or a ceasefire. Russia and Ukraine also exchanged attacks on each other's capitals overnight. There is no reported evidence connecting the St Petersburg blast to the talks, and Awaaz Punjab is not suggesting a link.

The overnight attacks and the envoys' Moscow visit are covered in Awaaz Punjab's reporting on the Abu Dhabi talks, which ended with a prisoner swap but no breakthrough. Read: Abu Dhabi talks end with prisoner swap, no breakthrough