Moscow Blast: A bomb explosion in Moscow Tuesday claimed the life of a senior Russian general overseeing the country’s nuclear protection forces, according to official reports from Russia. “Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, and his assistant (Ilya Polikarpov) were killed,” Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, was quoted as saying in a statement.
Kirillov, 54, a lieutenant general, served as the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops.
Ukrainian security sources told AFP and Reuters that Kyiv was behind Kirillov’s death in a targeted special operation.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” Reuters quoted a Ukrainian source as saying.
The explosion took place just a day after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) charged Igor Kirillov in absentia with issuing the order to use chemical weapons against the armed forces of Ukraine — an allegation denied by Russia.
According to a DW report, a Ukrainian official claimed that the attack was carried out by the country’s security service.
Kirillov is the highest-ranking Russian military officer to have been assassinated within Russia by Ukraine. His killing is expected to lead Russian authorities to reassess security measures for the military’s senior leadership.
Who Was Igor Kirillov?
Kirillov’s public career took off in 2017 when he became the commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Forces. The same year, he was appointed the Russian government’s spokesperson concerning a chemical attack in April 2017 that claimed many lives in the Syrian city of Douma.
The United States, Britain, and France had at that time blamed then-President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for the attack and launched strikes on several government targets in Syria in retaliation. As reported by international media, during a press briefing organised by Russia and Syria in The Hague, Kirillov alleged that it was a “staged” attack. He claimed that some of the samples collected from the site contained sarin, a toxic compound, and that it had been intentionally introduced into the objects — a claim that was never verified.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, briefings like the one in The Hague, where Kirillov was the primary speaker, became increasingly common. In these addresses, Kirillov accused the United States of establishing laboratories in Ukraine to develop biological weapons aimed at Russia.
Throughout his career, Kirillov held various positions in the Russian military related to hazardous materials, including his role in the Directorate of the Chief of the Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops.
In October this year, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Kirillov, accusing him of overseeing the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine and serving as a “key propagator of Kremlin disinformation”. According to Ukraine’s SBU, Russia used chemical weapons more than 4,800 times under Kirillov’s leadership, a BBC report said.
Moscow has denied all the allegations.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying in the media that Kirillov “had spent many years systematically exposing the crimes of the Anglo-Saxons”.
What We Know So Far About The Moscow Explosion
Igor Kirillov was killed outside an apartment building when a bomb went off. According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, the bomb was suspected to be hidden in an electric scooter.
Quoting a source, a Reuters report said Kirillov and Polikarpov were killed as they stepped out of the building on Moscow’s Ryazansky Prospekt after the scooter containing explosives was detonated.
The Investigative Committee is said to have “opened a criminal case into the murder of two servicemen.”
According to Russian state news outlets, the explosive device that killed Kirillov and his aide on Ryazansky Avenue had a blast power equivalent to 300 grams (0.7 pounds) of TNT. They also reported that bomb experts and specialised search dogs had examined the area, confirming no additional explosives were present.
