Police at the scene of the explosion outside Moscow’s Savyolovsky Railway Station, 24 February 2026. Photo: Pavel Seleznev / TASS
An apparent suicide bomber detonated an explosive device next to a traffic police vehicle outside Moscow’s Savyolovsky Railway Station at around midnight on Tuesday, killing a police officer as well as himself, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.
The bomber set off the explosive device as he approached a car in which police officers on duty at the station were seated, the committee’s statement said. The Russian Interior Ministry subsequently shared a photograph of the deceased police officer, naming him as Denis Bratushchenko, and said that two other police officers had been injured in the blast and were hospitalised.
Denis Bratushchenko. Photo: Irina Volk / Telegram
The Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case for attempted murder of law enforcement officers and the illegal trafficking of explosives. According to Telegram channel 112, the authorities have identified the man who carried out the suicide bombing, and though he has not been publicly named, he is believed to be a Russian citizen who “acted on the orders of the Ukrainian secret services”.
There have been multiple similar incidents in Ukraine in recent days targeting police officers. In the early hours of Sunday, an anonymous caller informed the police of a break-in at a shopping centre in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. An explosion then occurred as the police arrived on the scene. When police reinforcements arrived, a second explosive device detonated.
Policewoman Viktoria Shpylka was killed and 25 people were injured, with the National Police defining the incident as a terrorist attack. A suspect was detained on Sunday morning.
According to the investigation, a 33-year-old man from Ukraine’s northwestern Rivne region “made improvised explosive devices under instruction from the Russian secret services and installed them in predetermined locations”.
On Monday evening, another explosion occurred by a police station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, according to a police statement, though on this occasion there were no casualties.