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A Russian general in charge of Moscow’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces was assassinated early Tuesday in Moscow, in an explosion that also killed his assistant.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and Ilya Polikarpov were killed when a bomb detonated while they walked past it. The device was concealed inside a scooter, according to a statement from Russia’s Investigative Committee.
The incident occurred a day after Ukrainian prosecutors accused Kirillov of being responsible for Russian forces using chemical weapons in Ukraine. Several countries, including Britain and Canada, had sanctioned Kirillov, 54, for his actions during the war.
An SBU official told several news outlets that the agency was behind the attack. The official told VOA that Kirillov was a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.”
Scenes of the explosion and its aftermath circulated on Russian-language messaging channels.
Kirillov, 54, is the highest-level Russian military officer to be killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. A week previously, a Russian weapons designer reportedly was shot to death in a forest near Moscow.
A source at Ukraine’s SBU security service told RFE/RL that the blast resulted from a special operation by the SBU.
Moscow denounced the incident as a terrorist attack.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev vowed that “the Kiev regime will pay dearly,” according to Russian state news outlet, TASS.
“Attempts to intimidate our nation, stop the Russian offensive or sow fear are doomed,” Medvedev said, and would bring “certain punishment.”
The SBU has said that Russian forces used chemical weapons almost 5,000 times in Ukraine under Kirillov’s leadership.
– From RFE/RL’s Russian Service, and from reports in Russia’s state media outlet, TASS.
