A senior Russian army official was killed Tuesday, December 17 morning in an explosion near a residential building in the southeast of Moscow, announced the Russian Investigative Committee, responsible for the main investigations in the country.
In the morning, the Ukrainian security services (SBU) claimed responsibility for the assassination. “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”said a source within this structure.
General Igor Kirillov, 54, sanctioned in October by London for alleged deployment of chemical weapons in Ukraine, is the most senior Russian military official to be killed in Moscow since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The explosive hidden in a scooter
“The commander of the Russian nuclear, chemical and biological radio defense forces, Igor Kirillov, and his assistant were killed” in the explosion caused by the triggering of an explosive device, the committee said in a press release.
General Kirillov, sanctioned in October by London for alleged deployment of chemical weapons in Ukraine, is the most senior Russian military official to have been killed in Moscow since the start of the Russian offensive against its Ukrainian neighbor in February 2022.
According to investigators, the explosive device was placed on a scooter parked near the entrance to a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow. “A criminal investigation into the assassination of the two soldiers in Moscow has been opened”specified the Investigative Committee, adding that investigators are in the process of establishing “all circumstances” facts.
“An unprecedented crime has been committed in Moscow”reacted the Russian daily Kommersant on its site. General Kirillov “was not the leader of the most important participant in the Russian special operation” in Ukraine, estimates the newspaper.
“But it was he who spoke, during his briefings, about American biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine”of which Moscow accused Washington, recalls Kommersant, by affirming that the Ukrainian special services were behind this assassination.
The question of chemical weapons
The spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, deplored the loss of a general on Telegram “fearless, who never hid behind the backs of others”fighting “for the Fatherland and for the truth”.
For his part, the vice-president of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament, Konstantin Kosachev, promised on Telegram that “The murderers will be punished. Without doubt and without pity”.
In office since April 2017, Igor Kirillov was sanctioned in October by the United Kingdom for “deployment of barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine”. Russian authorities have repeatedly rejected these accusations, calling them“absurd”.
