The head of Russia’s nuclear and chemical forces was killed by a bomb blast in Moscow early Tuesday, officials said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said the explosive device, which was remotely triggered while hidden inside a parked scooter, killed Lt. General Igor Kirillov, AP reports. His assistant also died in the explosion.
The bomb had the power equivalent to roughly 300g of TNT, Russian state news agency Tass reported, citing unnamed sources in the emergency services.
State television footage from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched and blackened brickwork.
A view of the blast scene, which killed the commander of Russian armed forces’ chemical, biological and radiation defence troops, Igor Kirillov, and his assistant, according to the Russian Investigative Committee, outside a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow on December 17, 2024. (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images)
“Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,” the committee’s spokesperson, Svetlana Petrenko, said in a statement seen by AP.
“Investigative and search activities are being carried out to establish all the circumstances around this crime.”
She also said Moscow is treating the bombing as a terrorist attack.
According to Reuters, citing a Ukrainian security source, Kyiv’s security service killed the Russian general.
Security personnel and local residents gather at the Moscow blast scene where the commander of Russian armed forces’ chemical, biological and radiation defence troops, Igor Kirillov, and his assistant, were killed by a bomb early on December 17, 2024. (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty)
Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence soldiers, known as RKhBZ, are special forces who operate when there is a threat from radioactive, chemical and biological contamination.
This is not the first time a Russian military figure has been killed in central Moscow by hostile forces.
As Breitbart News reported, Ukraine claimed the assassination by shooting of a Russian missile scientist in a Moscow suburbs park earlier this month, just days after a car bombing killed a pro-Russian Ukrainian public official in occupied Donetsk.
