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What the 22 December 2025 strikes and bombing showed
Summary
A look back at a day of a car bombing in Moscow and Ukrainian airstrikes on targets across Russia.
What did the Russo-Ukrainian war look like inside Russia on 22 December 2025? Two reports from that day pointed to pressure far from the front line.
In Moscow, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was killed by a car bomb. The Security Service of Ukraine was reported to be under investigation over its role in the attack. It had not taken responsibility. Connections were also drawn to the assassination of Igor Kirillov the previous year.
The same day, Ukrainian military forces launched airstrikes on several targets across Russia. The reported targets were an oil terminal, an ammunition depot and a drone launch site in Krasnodar.
Two kinds of reach
The two events were different in method. One was a targeted killing in the Russian capital, with responsibility unclaimed. The other was a set of military strikes on infrastructure and launch facilities.
Taken together, the reports from 22 December 2025 showed the war reaching both a senior officer in Moscow and installations in Russia's south.
