The head of the Russian army’s chemical weapons division was killed yesterday in a brazen attack in Moscow claimed by Kyiv — the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin’s campaign in Ukraine drags on.
Igor Kirillov was killed along with his assistant when an explosive device attached to a scooter went off outside an apartment building in southeastern Moscow, Russian and Ukrainian officials said.
The attack took place in a residential area in the capital a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted of Russian troop successes in Ukraine, nearly three years after the Kremlin sent troops into its pro-Western neighbor.
Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense via Reuters
Kirillov, 54, was the head of the Russian army’s chemical, biological and radiological weapons unit and in October was sanctioned by the UK over the alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.
A source in Ukraine’s SBU security service said that it was behind the explosion in what it called a “special operation,” calling Kirillov a “war criminal.”
Russia’s Investigative Committee said that an “explosive device planted in a scooter parked near the entrance of a residential building was activated on the morning of December 17 on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow.”
The blast shattered several windows of the building and severely damaged the front door, a reporter at the scene said.
Russian authorities said they were probing the attack as “terrorism.”
Ukraine’s SBU alleged that Kirillov was responsible for using banned chemical weapons on the battlefield.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” said the SBU source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”
There have been assassinations on Russian territory before, but such attacks in Moscow — where fighting in Ukraine often feels distant — are rare.
Residents said that they had initially assumed the loud noise they heard came from a nearby construction site.
Student Mikhail Mashkov, who lives in the building next door, said he was woken up by a “very loud explosion noise,” thinking “something fell at the construction site,” before looking outside.
Olga Bogomolova said that she thought a container had fallen at the construction site, but then realized “it was a very strong explosion,” saw “broken windows” and that it was something else.
Previous targets included nationalist writer Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car bomb attack outside Moscow in 2022, and pro-conflict military correspondent Maxim Fomin, who was blown up in a St Petersburg cafe last year, but Kirillov is the most senior Russian military official to be killed.
Kyiv had a day earlier charged Kirillov in absentia on allegations of committing “war crimes” against Ukraine.
“The official is responsible for the massive use of banned chemical weapons,” the SBU said on Monday, alleging more than 4,800 cases of Russia using chemical munitions since February 2022.
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