A Russian general was killed on Tuesday by a bomb hidden on a scooter outside his Moscow apartment building, a day after Ukrainian security forces charged him with crimes. The Ukrainian official said that the ministry was the one who attacked.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection, was killed on his way to his office. Kirillov’s aide was also killed in the attack.
Kirillov, 54, has been under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s war in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
An SBU official said the agency was responsible for the attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information, described Kirillov as “a war criminal and a legitimate target.”
The SBU said it has recorded more than 4,800 instances of Russia’s use of chemical weapons on the battlefield since the all-out attack in February 2022. In May, the US State Department said it had recorded the use of chloropicrin, the poison gas that was first used. in World War I, against the Ukrainian army.
Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in the war.
Kirillov, who took up his current job in 2017, was one of the most senior figures to weigh in on those allegations. He has held numerous forums accusing the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning a radioactive attack—allegations that Ukraine and its Western allies dismiss as propaganda.
An SBU official released a video they said was of the bombing. It shows two men exiting a building just before an explosion fills the frame.
The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was detonated remotely, according to Russian news reports. Photos from the scene showed broken windows and burnt bricks.
Russia’s top prosecutor says it is investigating Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and Moscow officials have vowed to punish Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council headed by President Vladimir Putin, described the attack as an attempt by Kyiv to distract public attention from the military’s failure and vowed that “its top military and political leadership will face inevitable punishment.”
Over the past year, Russia has been at the forefront of the war in Ukraine, advancing in the eastern region of Donetsk region despite heavy losses. Ukraine tried to change the tide by entering the Kursk region of Russia, but it continued to lose its territory gradually.
Since Russia invaded, several prominent people have been killed in targeted attacks believed to be carried out by Ukraine.
Daria Dugina, a commentator for Russian TV channels and the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a former nationalist activist with ties to the Kremlin, died in a 2022 car bombing that investigators suspect was targeted at her father.
Vladlen Tatarsky, a famous military blogger, died in April 2023, when a photo he was given at a party in St. Petersburg exploded. A Russian woman, who said she presented the image with a contact order in Ukraine, was convicted and sentenced to 27 years.
In December 2023, Illia Kiva, a former pro-Moscow Ukrainian lawyer who fled to Russia, was shot dead near Moscow. Ukraine’s military intelligence service recommended the execution, warning that other “Ukrainian traitors” would meet the same fate.
On December 9, an explosive device was planted under a car in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Donetsk, reportedly targeting Sergei Yevsyukov, the former head of the Olenivka Prison where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in a missile strike in July 2022. One person was injured. it explodes. Russian authorities say they have arrested a suspect in the attack.
-Associated Press writer Illia Novikov contributed from Kyiv, Ukraine.
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