Igor Kirillov, a senior Russian army official, and his deputy were killed in an explosion in the southeast of Moscow, announced the Russian Investigative Committee, responsible for the main investigations in the country.
The explosion was caused by the detonation of an explosive device, the committee said. According to investigators, this device was placed on a scooter parked near the entrance to a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow.
General Igor Kirillov was the commander of Russia’s radionuclear, chemical and biological defense forces. Sanctioned in October by London for alleged deployment of chemical weapons in Ukraine, he is the most senior Russian military official to have been killed in Moscow since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
The windows of several apartments were broken by the explosion and large police cordons were deployed around them. The entrance to the building was heavily damaged.
“A criminal investigation into the assassination of the two soldiers in Moscow has been opened,” said the Investigative Committee, adding that investigators are in the process of establishing “all the circumstances” of the facts.
>> Details from La Matinale:
Swiss
