One of Vladimir Putin’s top army generals has been killed in a bomb attack in Moscow.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, a high-ranking official in charge of radiation, chemical and biological defence troops, died in the explosion as he emerged from his apartment block with his driver or assistant who was also killed.
The bombing – believed to be by a Ukrainian hit squad – came the day after Kyiv had accused Kirillov of overseeing the widespread use of banned chemical weapons against its troops in the conflict zone.
Charging him in absentia with war crimes, the Ukrainian SBU said he was responsible for more than 4,800 documented cases of Russian troops using chemical munitions since the start of the full-scale war.
Multiple Russian media, including state outlets, identified Kirillov, citing law enforcement sources before the Russian Investigative Committee was reported by TASS as officially stating the general had been killed in the bomb blast.
A waiting car was known to have been used by Kirillov.
The general was killed in a powerful explosion as he emerged from his apartment building.
The entrance door of the house itself was torn off and the windows were broken.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov (pictured), 54, died in the explosion as he emerged from his apartment block with his driver or assistant who was also killed
The general’s official car which had arrived to collect him at 6am was also damaged.
The bomb was apparently hidden in or on an electric scooter at the scene.
It is believed to have detonated remotely triggering the explosion of an estimated 200 grams of TNT.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case following the explosion on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow.
Investigators confirmed the deaths of two men and said that a suspect in the case is being identified.
The second man killed was identified only as Ilya P.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Ukraine.
But on Monday, the SBU security service in Kyiv said it had charged him with the use of banned chemical weapons in the war.
He was accused of masterminding the use of K-1 grenades loaded with banned irritant agents, CS and CN, as confirmed by two laboratories affiliated with the international Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
They were deployed by FPV drones, aiming to force Ukrainian soldiers out of trenches and into direct fire.
The weapons cause severe irritation to mucous membranes, including the eyes and respiratory tract, it was alleged.
This had resulted in some 2,000 Ukrainian troops being hospitalised since Russia’s invasion began.
The SBU said: “The Security Service has documented war crimes committed by Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops of the Russian Armed Forces.
“The official is responsible for the mass use of prohibited chemical weapons by Russian militants against the Defence Forces on the eastern and southern fronts of Ukraine.
“On Kirillov’s orders, more than 4,800 cases of the enemy using chemical munitions have been recorded since the beginning of the full-scale war.”
Kirillov served as the Chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defence Troops since 2017.
He took part in the creation and adoption of the TOS-2 Tosochka heavy flamethrower system
He was also known for spreading conspiracy theories about Western use of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine.
In March 2022, he gave a Defence Ministry presentation about alleged American biolabs in Ukraine that are developing projects to spread biological weapons using bats and birds.
Kirillov also accused Ukraine of provocations using toxic chemicals, including a “dirty bomb.”
In August he said providing no proof: “The facts of the simultaneous supply of toxic chemicals and means of protection against them indicate an attempt to carry out large-scale provocations using the psychotropic chemical warfare agent BZ during the conflict.”
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