Ukraine has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s killing of Russia’s Head of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces, Lt. General Igor Kirillov in a Moscow apartment building.
Lt Gen Kirillov and his assistant were hit at the entrance to a residential block when a bomb device concealed in an electric scooter went off. He is the most senior Russian military official to be killed in such a blast in Moscow since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.
On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him under the charge of directing the use of banned chemical weapons. Associated Press cited an official with the SBU, who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the Ukrainian agency was behind the attack.
Lt Gen Kirilov, 54, was under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Commenting on the development, Russian Investigative Committee’s spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said investigators have opened a case into the two deaths.
“Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,” she said in a statement. “Investigative and search activities are being carried out to establish all the circumstances around this crime.”
