Igor Kirillov, a senior Russian army official, was killed in the explosion near a residential building in southeastern Moscow.
He had ordered the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces, was killed in an explosion in the early morning hours of Tuesday, December 17, near a residential building in southeastern Moscow. announced the Russian Investigative Committee, responsible for the main investigations in the country.
According to a press release from this Committee relayed by AFP, “an explosive device placed in a scooter parked near the entrance to a residential building was activated on the morning of December 17 on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow.” The American press, for its part, mentions the explosion of an electric scooter.
In several photos distributed on social networks, notably the independent Ukrainian media Ukraine Front Line, we can see in the rubble a machine resembling an electric scooter.
Everywhere the observation is the same: “The commander of the Russian radionuclear, chemical and biological defense forces, Igor Kirillov, and his deputy were killed” following the explosion, as stated by the Russian Investigative Committee.
The entrance to the building was seriously damaged and the windows of several apartments were broken, according to images published by Russian media.
“A criminal investigation into the assassination of the two soldiers in Moscow has been opened,” according to the Russian Investigative Committee.
Investigators were dispatched to the scene and examinations are underway to establish “all the circumstances” of the incident, according to the same source.
“Deployment of barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine”
In office since April 2017, Igor Kirillov was sanctioned in October by the United Kingdom for “deploying barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine”. His assassination comes in the middle of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, underway since February 2022.
The senior Russian army official was also convicted in absentia – in his absence – by a Ukrainian court on December 16 for the same accusations of using banned chemical weapons on Russian battlefields.
