A Russian general in charge of the country’s nuclear and chemical weapons protection forces was killed in a bombing in southeastern Moscow on Tuesday morning.
The general, Igor Kirillov, was killed, along with an aide, after an explosive device seemingly planted within a scooter was detonated near the entryway of a residential building, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee. The committee has declared the explosion a terrorist attack.
“On the morning of December 17, an explosive device planted in a scooter went off near a residential building entrance on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow, the investigation showed. Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his aide were killed in the explosion,” said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee.
A Ukrainian Security Service official said Ukraine was responsible for the assassination, according to CBS News.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, since he gave orders to use prohibited chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” an informed source in the SBU said. “Such an inglorious end awaits everyone who kills Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev honored Kirillov and promised a swift response.
“Attempts to intimidate our nation, stop the Russian offensive, or sow fear are doomed. Certain punishment awaits Banderite Nazis, including the top military and political leaders of a crumbling country,” he said, per his office.
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A day before Kirillov’s killing, the SBU had charged him in absentia under the allegations he was responsible for the “massive use of banned chemical weapons” in Ukraine. SBU said it has recorded more than 4,800 occasions of Russian forces using chemical weapons since the war began in February 2022.
The U.S. State Department announced in May 2024 that it was sanctioning more than 280 people and entities involved in Russia’s use of the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian forces.