A senior Russian general in charge of nuclear protection forces has been killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter, Russia’s investigative committee says.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who is in charge of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, died in the street outside a block of flats about four miles (7km) southeast of the Kremlin.
His assistant also died in the explosion.
“The head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, Igor Kirillov and his assistant were killed,” the investigative committee said.
Photographs posted on Russian Telegram channels showed two bodies lying in the blood-stained snow next to the wrecked entrance to a building.
Russian news agency TASS said the bomb contained the equivalent of 300g of high explosive.
Several cars and the first four floors of the apartment building were damaged, the news agency added.
Police are now investigating.
Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence soldier, known as RKhBZ, are special forces who operate when there is a threat from radioactive, chemical and biological contamination.
On Monday, a Ukrainian prosecutor charged General Kirillov in absentia with allegedly using banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine said.
It was claimed that General Kirillov was “using dangerous chemicals mainly in the hottest areas of combat, where they [Russia] are trying to hide the use of chemical agents under dense artillery fire.”
Russia denies those accusations.
In October, the UK sanctioned Kirillov and the nuclear protection forces for using riot control agents, with reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin on the battlefield.
“Among those sanctioned today are the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of the Russian Armed Forces and its leader Igor Kirillov, responsible for helping deploy these barbaric weapons,” the government said in its announcement of the sanctions.
It was added that General Kirillov was also a “significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation, spreading lies to mask Russia’s shameful and dangerous behaviour”.
