A SENIOR Vladimir Putin war general has reportedly been killed in a huge car bombing in Moscow. Yaroslav Moskalik, a 59-year-old defence ministry general, was sent "several metres" in the explosion which is being treated as a suspected assassination. Images show how a Volkswagen Golf was left decimated in Balashikha in Moscow region at around 10:40am today. The car was quickly engulfed in the flames as thick black smoke billowed into the air. Traces of IED striking elements were reportedly found at the site of the explosion. Moskalik was deputy chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. He also represented Russia’s General Staff in talks with Ukraine in 2015. The explosive was likely detonated from a remote location. It is still unclear who may have caused the blast with many onlookers left shocked by the inferno. The timing of the deadly ploy comes as US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff is due to meet with Putin later today. Witkoff is in Moscow for another round of talks with Russia over ending the Ukraine war. Last November, another top Putin commander was taken out by a car bomb. A graphic video showed how Russian naval commander Captain Valery Trankovsky was blown up in a fiery inferno. Trankovsky's legs had blasted off in the explosion and he died from “combined injuries and profuse blood loss.” The commander has been the highest-ranking naval officer to be killed on the edge of Russia since the invasion started. Back in July, Andrei Torgashov, 50, jumped into a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado which quickly exploded - leaving his legs blown off. Russian authorities suspected the blast north of Moscow, was likely linked to the war in Ukraine and was treated as an assassination attempt.