The blast occurred on the morning of October 2 on Druzhby Street, Astra reported, citing witnesses. According to them, the car continued moving by inertia after the explosion and struck a pole. The driver died.
The Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, citing sources, said an explosive device had been planted under the underside of the car on the driver's side. Russian emergency services and the authorities of the Tula region have not publicly commented on the circumstances of the incident. Footage from witnesses shows a large number of security personnel at the scene, including Rosgvardia officers.
VChK-OGPU and the Ukrainian monitoring project Supernova+ later named the possible victim as Roman Alekseyevich Syromyatnikov. Several hours later, the portal Tulskiye Novosti published a note about the death of a war participant named Syromyatnikov, without linking his death to the explosion. On October 3, the outlet Novomoskovsk Segodnya published an obituary saying he died "as a result of the tragic events that occurred yesterday in the city." The driver's identity has not been officially confirmed.
According to The Insider, a person with the same full name is indeed connected to Novomoskovsk and took part in the war with Ukraine. On the website of Novomoskovsk Multidisciplinary College, Roman Syromyatnikov is listed as a teacher-organizer of "Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland." The college itself in September 2025 described him as a serving war participant.
According to the Defenders of the Fatherland foundation, Syromyatnikov signed a contract with the Defense Ministry in the summer of 2023 and spent about two years at the war. He himself told the Tula outlet MySlo that before the war he worked as an OBZh teacher at Novomoskovsk Multidisciplinary College, and that he decided to go to the front after meeting two former students who were already fighting. According to him, on May 11, 2024, he was wounded while evacuating the wounded after a drone attack, spent about a month in a hospital, and then returned to his positions. The Insider writes that Syromyatnikov served in a paratroop company of the 51st Regiment of the 106th Tula Airborne Division. The Boevoye Bratstvo organization reported that he took part in the First Chechen War and was awarded two Medals "For Courage," one of them for saving the wounded.
In Ukraine, Syromyatnikov was accused of torturing Ukrainian prisoners of war at Tula Correctional Colony No. 1 and was put on a wanted list, Astra writes. According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, investigators allege that in 2022 he took part in the torture of at least 50 Ukrainians. Investigators claim that Syromyatnikov and his colleagues beat prisoners with their hands, feet, batons, plastic pipes and hammers and used stun guns. The Ukrainian website Myrotvorets says Syromyatnikov "possesses exceptional cruelty and sadism." According to Vazhnyye Istorii, in the 2010s he worked at institutions of the Tula branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
Accounts differ: there is no official confirmation of the circumstances of the explosion or the identity of the deceased — emergency services and the authorities of the Tula region have not reported the incident. The version of a planted bomb, citing sources, was provided by the security services-linked Telegram channel VChK-OGPU; it has not received independent confirmation. The local outlet Novomoskovsk Segodnya reported Syromyatnikov's death without linking it to the car explosion.