A senior officer with the Russian military was killed in a fiery car bombing near Moscow on Friday, just hours before Steve Witkoff was due to meet with President Putin in the capital city to discuss a cease fire with Ukraine.

Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, who was a deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate for the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was killed at Balashikha, less than 20 miles east of Moscow, when a parked Volkswagen Golf suddenly exploded, according to a statement from Russia’s Investigative Committee. The source of the blast was an improvised explosive device packed with shrapnel, according to a report by CNN.

A channel on the messaging app Telegram with local law enforcement, called Baza, reportedly pushed out a message claiming that the bomb had been detonated remotely as Lieutenant General Moskalik was walking by the vehicle, according to the Guardian.

The Investigative Committee added that they have launched a criminal probe into the bombing which comes just two days after an explosion at an underground parking garage at Moscow’s business district.

The moment of explosion was captured on security cameras and appears to be similar to recent attacks on Russians that were later claimed by Ukraine officials, who have targeted dozens of military officers and other officials who have accused Kyiv of war crimes.

Last December, Ukraine’s security services targeted another senior Russian general, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was killed after an explosive device hidden in an electric scooter detonated outside an apartment building at Moscow.