A high-ranking Russian general was killed on Tuesday due to an explosion from a bomb placed in a scooter outside his apartment complex in Moscow. This occurred just a day after Ukraine’s security agency initiated criminal charges against him. A Ukrainian official has confirmed that the operation was executed by the agency.
The victim, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, served as the head of the military’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces. He was killed while on his way to the office, and his assistant also succumbed to injuries sustained in the explosion. Kirillov, aged 54, had been sanctioned by several nations, including the UK and Canada, due to his involvement in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Notably, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had recently announced a criminal investigation against him for allegedly overseeing the usage of prohibited chemical weapons.
An anonymous official with the SBU has labeled Kirillov as a “war criminal” and stated that he was a legitimate target. The SBU claimed to have documented over 4,800 incidents where Russia allegedly employed chemical weapons following its large-scale invasion in February 2022. In May, the U.S. State Department highlighted instances of chloropicrin, a gas first utilized in World War I, being employed against Ukrainian troops.
While Russia has denied utilizing any chemical weapons in Ukraine, it has accused Ukraine of deploying toxic substances during warfare. Kirillov, who has held his current position since 2017, was among the notable figures in the Russian government to assert these accusations. He frequently conducted briefings to allege that the Ukrainian military used toxic agents and planned assaults involving radioactive materials, allegations that Ukraine and its Western partners have dismissed as pure propaganda.
Reports from Russian media indicate that the bomb responsible for Tuesday’s incident was activated remotely. Photographs from the scene depicted damaged windows and charred brickwork. Additionally, the SBU shared a video that purportedly captured the explosion, showing two men departing from a building moments before the blast occurred.
Russia’s major state investigative body has classified Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism and vowed retaliation against Ukraine. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, asserted that the incident was an attempt by Ukraine to divert attention from its military setbacks and promised that high-ranking military and political leaders would face “inevitable retribution.”
Some commentators and Russian military bloggers have suggested without evidence that the U.S. might have played a role in Kirillov’s killing. In response to inquiries about the incident, a U.S. State Department spokesperson stated that America had no prior knowledge of the event and was not involved.
During a summit in Estonia, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson mentioned that while he was not privy to details of the attack, he could understand Ukraine’s motive to retaliate. Over the past year, Russia had maintained aggressive military operations in Ukraine, pressing its advance into the Donetsk area despite substantial troop losses. Attempts by Ukraine to reclaim territory included a minor incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, but Kyiv has faced slow losses on its own land.
Throughout the ongoing conflict, several notable figures have been eliminated in attacks attributed to Ukrainian forces. Among them, Darya Dugina, a Russian TV commentator and daughter of a prominent ideological figure, was killed in a car bombing in 2022, suspected to have been aimed at her father. In April 2023, Vladlen Tatarsky, a well-known military blogger, perished when an explosive disguised as a gift detonated at an event he attended. A Ukrainian-linked woman was later convicted for her role in that incident.
Moreover, the assassination of Illia Kyva, a former Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia, occurred near Moscow in December 2023. The Ukrainian military intelligence praised the killing, warning that additional “traitors of Ukraine” could share a similar fate. On December 9, a vehicle bomb in the city of Donetsk, which is under Russian control, took the life of Sergei Yevsyukov, a former prison head associated with numerous Ukrainian wartime casualties. Russian authorities apprehended a suspect linked to that attack.