A senior Russian army official was killed in the explosion that occurred Tuesday morning near a residential building in the southeast of Moscow, announced the Russian Investigative Committee, responsible for the main investigations in the country.
Ukraine's security services (SBU) claimed responsibility for the assassination of a senior Russian military official on Tuesday morning in an explosion in Moscow, an SBU source said.
“Today's bomb attack against Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, commander of the radiological, chemical and biological defense troops of the Russian Armed Forces, is a special operation of the SBU,” it said.
“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 committee said in a statement.
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An open investigation
“The commander of the Russian radionuclear, chemical and biological defense forces, Igor Kirillov, and his deputy were killed” following the explosion, according to the same source.
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.
Sanctioned for deployment of 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. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin took stock of the fighting in Ukraine for the year 2024, welcoming the pace of the advance of his troops and the to have “initiative” on the entire front at the end of this “pivotal year”.
