Lieutenant General Kirillov killed outside an apartment building in the Russian capital.
Published On 17 Dec 2024
A senior Russian general in charge of nuclear protection forces in Moscow has been killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter, Russia’s investigative committee said.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was chief of the Troops of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence, was killed on Tuesday outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt.
“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,” the investigative committee said.
Russia’s TASS news agency reported, quoting a law enforcement official, that the explosive device “had a capacity of some 300 grams in TNT equivalent”.
A source within the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) told Al Jazeera it was behind the attack. “We claim our responsibility for the bombing of the head of the Russian Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces, Igor Kirillov,” the source said.
Reuters and AFP news agency also cited a source within the SBU that the agency was behind the general’s killing and called him a “legitimate target”. Ukraine has yet to officially comment on the incident.
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. A criminal case has been opened.
Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence troops are special forces who operate under conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination.
Al Jazeera’s Maria Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said according to residents, there was a lack of surveillance cameras in the area where the attack took place.
“Residents of the residential complex where the explosive device went off… have been complaining for years about the lack of normal video surveillance. The cameras were not recording what was happening… on those block of flats,” she said.
