A top General in Charge of Russian nuclear protection forces, Igor Kirillov has been killed along with an aide by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter in Moscow today. According to Russia’s investigative committee, Lt. General Kirillov was killed alongside his second-in-command. According to state news agency TASS, the incident occurred on Ryazansky Prospekt, a main road beginning approximately seven km to the southeast of the Kremlin.
Kirillov the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin’s campaign in Ukraine drags on. He assumed leadership of the force in April 2017.
As per the media report, following the blast, Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for the attack.
A Ukrainian court issued a sentence in absentia yesterday against Kirillov for allegedly deploying prohibited chemical weapons during Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
A bomb hidden in an electric scooter killed a senior Russian general in Moscow on December 17, 2024, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside a residential building on Ryazansky Prospekt, about 7km (4 miles) southeast of the Kremlin.
A criminal case has been opened. Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence troops, known as RKhBZ, are special forces who operate under conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt along with his assistant, Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a statement.
Photographs posted on Russian Telegram channels showed a shattered entrance to a building littered with rubble and two bodies lying in the blood-stained snow. Footage from the scene showed a police cordon.
Investigators said they had opened a criminal case into the murder of two servicemen. Law enforcement sources told Russian media it was likely to be upgraded into a terrorism case. Russia denies Ukrainian allegations it uses chemical weapons on the battlefield and Kirillov, who was married with two sons, was himself sometimes shown on state TV accusing Ukraine of violating nuclear safety protocols.
