Armenian pro-Russian paramilitary leader dies of injuries following Moscow explosion

Armen Sargsyan, an Armenian-born military leader who founded the pro-Russian paramilitary group Arbat, which fought alongside Russian troops during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, died in hospital on Monday after being injured in an explosion at a Moscow apartment complex earlier in the day, the state-run media outlet TASS reported.

On Tuesday, TASS confirmed that one of Sargsyan’s guards had also been killed and several others injured.

Russia’s State Investigative Committee said it had launched an inquiry into the explosion under several criminal codes, including murder.

After several high-profile killings of Russian officials inside the country — such as the death of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in Moscow in December — there was immediate speculation that Sargsyan had been assassinated, presumably at the behest of Ukrainian security services.

While not explicitly saying that Ukraine was responsible, a source in law enforcement told TASS that Sargsyan’s death was believed to be an assassination.

Kyiv often does not comment on assassinations or other attacks that occur within Russia, and has not made an official reaction to Sargsyan’s death. However, an unnamed source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that the agency had been responsible for Kirillov’s death.

Crime boss, paramilitary leader, boxing federation head

Sargsyan was born in Yerevan, but relocated to the Ukrainian city of Horlivka, located in the Donbas region, during his childhood, and subsequently obtained Ukrainian citizenship.

He has been referred to as a ‘known mafia boss’, and was also closely associated with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted after the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.

Sargsyan has been on Ukraine’s wanted list since 2014, and was accused of orchestrating murders in Kyiv, as well as organising so-called ‘titushki’ (a phrase referring to ununiformed men who were hired to attack protesters and other opposition figures) to harass or intimidate participants of the EuroMaidan demonstrations.

Following the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Sargsyan founded the Arbat Battalion, a pro-Russian paramilitary group consisting  of mostly ethnic Armenians, many of whom were also reportedly former members of the Wagner mercenary group.

Horlivka has remained under Russian occupation since 2014, and the SBU said that Sargsyan helped oversee prisons in the area, as well as recruit prisoners to join the Arbat Battalion.

In addition to Ukraine, the Arbat Battalion has also reportedly been involved in attempts to interfere in Armenian affairs.

In September 2024, Armenia’s Investigative Committee said it had arrested several Armenian nationals, as well as Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, for allegedly training with the Arbat Battalion in Russia in preparation to try and overthrow the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Nonetheless, TASS’s short biography of Sargsyan contained no mention of any of these events, nor the Arbat Battalion, and solely referred to him as the ‘head of the Boxing Federation of the Donetsk People’s Republic’, a term used to describe one of the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donbas region.

‘Why shouldn’t Ukraine take revenge?’: Russia’s full-scale war comes to the North Caucasus

Since July, multiple republics in the North Caucasus have been subjected to multiple drone attacks.

OC MediaElizaveta Chukharova