Moscow restaurant bombing kills 3 after security guard stops woman at entrance with IED

The attack

An explosion struck the upscale Balzi Rossi restaurant in central Moscow on Saturday at around 8:00 pm local time. A woman carrying a homemade explosive device approached the entrance and was stopped by a security guard. The device detonated on the veranda outside the building, killing the woman, the guard and one customer. Russia's National Antiterrorism Committee confirmed the cause was a homemade explosive device. Earlier state television reports had speculated a gas cylinder might be responsible, but investigators concluded the blast was caused by an IED.

A homemade explosive device blew up at a restaurant in Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow, killing three people.

The main investigative directorate of Russia's Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under Article 205 of the Russian criminal code, treating the explosion as a terrorist act. No group has claimed responsibility and authorities have not announced a political motive.

Casualties

Three people died at the scene: the unidentified woman carrying the device, the security guard who refused her entry, and a restaurant customer. Initial reports from Saturday evening put the wounded at 15, but updated figures from Tass and other agencies on Sunday rose to 21. Emergency services described injuries of varying severity. Video from RIA Novosti showed heavily armed security forces cordoning off the area, and Telegram channels circulated footage of fire engines and ambulances massed outside the Stalin-era skyscraper that houses the restaurant.

Who was inside

The restaurant had been booked for a private event and was closed to the public on Saturday. Unverified social media accounts described both a wedding party and a birthday celebration for a senior military officer. Telegram channels 112 and Astra named Colonel General Alexander Chaiko, commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces since May 2026. Military blogger Yan Matveev pointed to Major General Vladimir Seliverstov, former commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division, and Lieutenant General Alexander Yaroshevich, both of whom had birthdays that day. None of these names has been confirmed by any official source. Kommersant cited sources saying the bomb was intended to maim and kill guests on the restaurant's summer terrace outside the building.

Context of previous attacks

Russia has seen a series of bombings and targeted killings since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. Ukrainian intelligence services have claimed responsibility for or been accused of several attacks on Russian military officers and pro-Kremlin public figures.

General Yaroslav Moskalik died in a car bomb near Moscow in April 2025. Darya Dugina, daughter of ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed by a car bomb in August 2022. Military blogger Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky, died in April 2023 when a concealed explosive in a statuette detonated at a St. Petersburg cafe. In December 2024 a bomb attached to a scooter outside a Moscow apartment block killed General Igor Kirillov, head of the army's chemical weapons division, and his assistant.

Wider fighting

Hours after the Moscow explosion, a Ukrainian drone strike killed two people in the Saratov region of southwestern Russia, roughly 750 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, regional governor Roman Busargin said on Telegram. The restaurant bombing came the same day President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Ukrainian strikes on three Russian oil refineries nearly 1,600 kilometres behind enemy lines.