One of Vladimir Putin’s top army generals has been killed in an explosion after a bomb hidden in an electric scooter was detonated outside his apartment in Moscow.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, a high-ranking official in charge of radiation, chemical and biological defence troops, died in the bomb attack as he emerged from his apartment block with his driver or assistant who was also killed.
The bombing – believed to be by a Ukrainian hit squad – came the day after Kyiv had accused Kirillov of overseeing the widespread use of banned chemical weapons against its troops in the conflict zone.
Charging him in absentia with war crimes, the Ukrainian SBU said he was responsible for more than 4,800 documented cases of Russian troops using chemical munitions since the start of the full-scale war.
The Russian investigative committee confirmed the army general’s death, writing: ‘Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, and his assistant were killed.’
Photographs posted on Russian Telegram channels showed a shattered entrance to a building littered with rubble and two bodies lying in the blood-stained snow.
The entrance door of the house itself was torn off and the windows were broken, while the general’s official car which had arrived to collect him at 6am was also damaged.
The bomb was apparently hidden in or on an electric scooter at the scene, which emergency crews could be seen inspecting.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov (pictured), 54, died in the explosion as he emerged from his apartment block with his driver or assistant who was also killed
It’s understood that the bomb was hidden inside an electric scooter when it detonated
Two body bags can be seen after the bomb was detonated outside the Moscow apartment
Footage from the aftermath of the explosion shows a smashed up car as emergency crews rushed to the scene
It is believed to have detonated remotely triggering the explosion of an estimated 200 grams of TNT.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case following the explosion on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow.
Investigators confirmed the deaths of two men and said that a suspect in the case is being identified.
The second man killed was identified only as Ilya P. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Ukraine.
But on Monday, the SBU security service in Kyiv said it had charged him with the use of banned chemical weapons in the war.
He was accused of masterminding the use of K-1 grenades loaded with banned irritant agents, CS and CN, as confirmed by two laboratories affiliated with the international Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
They were deployed by FPV drones, aiming to force Ukrainian soldiers out of trenches and into direct fire.
The weapons cause severe irritation to mucous membranes, including the eyes and respiratory tract, it was alleged.
Emergency crews storm into the apartment block, looking down at the electric scooter, after the explosion
Russian police could be seen setting up a cordon around the body bags after the explosion
The entrance door of the house itself was torn off and the windows were broken, while the general’s official car which had arrived to collect him at 6am was also damaged
The general was killed in a powerful explosion as he emerged from his apartment building. Pictured: The scene of the explosion
This had resulted in some 2,000 Ukrainian troops being hospitalised since Russia’s invasion began.
The SBU said: ‘The Security Service has documented war crimes committed by Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops of the Russian Armed Forces.
‘The official is responsible for the mass use of prohibited chemical weapons by Russian militants against the Defence Forces on the eastern and southern fronts of Ukraine.
‘On Kirillov’s orders, more than 4,800 cases of the enemy using chemical munitions have been recorded since the beginning of the full-scale war.’
Kirillov served as the Chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defence Troops since 2017.
He took part in the creation and adoption of the TOS-2 Tosochka heavy flamethrower system
He was also known for spreading conspiracy theories about Western use of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine.
In March 2022, he gave a Defence Ministry presentation about alleged American biolabs in Ukraine that are developing projects to spread biological weapons using bats and birds.
Kirillov also accused Ukraine of provocations using toxic chemicals, including a ‘dirty bomb.’
In August he said providing no proof: ‘The facts of the simultaneous supply of toxic chemicals and means of protection against them indicate an attempt to carry out large-scale provocations using the psychotropic chemical warfare agent BZ during the conflict.’
Kirillov was notorious for a warning that US-supervised Ukrainian biolabs were studying viruses that could be transmitted by mosquitoes.
This included US plans to deliver mosquitoes using drones to infect Russian troops.
He also counted for an increase in bird flu in Russia by the migration of infected birds from Ukraine.
His death follows the shooting five days ago of Mikhail Shatsky, a designer from the Mars Design Bureau, who had worked actively on upgrading the Russian Kh-59 cruise missile.
Eight days ago, notorious Russian jail torturer and killer Sergey Yevsyukov, 49, who had headed Olenivka jail where Ukrainian POWs were abused, died when his Toyota Land Cruiser exploded in a Donetsk car bombing.
Russian naval commander Captain Valery Trankovsky, 47, was killed in a car bombing in November in Sevastopol.
A major hunt has been launched for the bomber who is assumed to have carried out orders from Ukrainian intelligence in killing Kirillov.
Russian law enforcement suspects the bomber used a radio signal and was within range of the scene when the improvised explosive device was detonated.
CCTV footage was being closely examined.
A bomb disposal robot was brought to the site of the explosion, said reports.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed Kirillov ‘for many years systematically, with facts in hand, exposed the crimes of the Anglo-Saxons’.
This included ‘NATO provocations with chemical weapons in Syria’ and ‘Britain’s manipulation of banned chemical substances and provocations in Salisbury and Amesbury’ as well as ‘the deadly activities of American biolaboratories in Ukraine and much more.
‘Worked fearlessly. Did not hide behind backs. He marched with an open visor. For the Motherland, for the truth. Bright memory, God rest his soul.’
