General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological and chemical forces, was killed in a Moscow bomb blast claimed by Ukraine

The head of the biological and chemical weapons division of the Russian military, Lt. General Igor Kirillov was killed along with his deputy on Tuesday when a bomb exploded in Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. Ukrainian security sources told CBS News that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) killed Kirillov in a special operation. The claim could not be independently verified, but Russian officials quickly vowed to retaliate against Ukrainian leaders.

Sources said a scooter loaded with explosives was detonated near Kirillov and his aide outside a residential building in the Russian capital. A video circulating online appeared to show two men exiting the building before an electric scooter parked near the entrance exploded.

“Kirillov was a war criminal and a legitimate victim, as he ordered the use of illegal chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” a source with knowledge of the SBU told CBS News. “Such a terrible fate awaits everyone who kills the people of Ukraine. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”

The deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, said that the leaders of Ukraine will immediately take revenge for the murder, reported the Russian media RIA.

The bomb was detonated remotely and contained 300 grams of TNT, Russian news agency Tass reported, citing unnamed sources in the emergency services.

“Investigators, intelligence experts and operatives are working at the scene,” Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for Russia’s National Investigative Committee, said in a statement. “Investigations and searches are underway to establish all the circumstances surrounding this crime.”

He also said that the Kremlin was treating it as a terrorist attack.

Kirillov and the unit he led have been sanctioned by several countries, including the UK, Canada and the US, for using chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s SBU said it has recorded more than 4,800 instances of Russia’s use of chemical weapons on the battlefield since President Vladimir Putin launched his all-out attack in February 2022. In May, the US State Department announced sanctions on Kirillov’s unit, which the US said was a record. the use of chloropicrin, a poison gas first used in World War I, against Ukrainian soldiers.

Kirillov, who has been in office since April 2017, has also been accused by the US government of helping spread information about biological weapons and research.

March 2023, almost a year has passed Full invasion of RussiaThe U.S. State Department said Kirillov “greatly increased his communications with the media” to issue repeated, baseless claims that the U.S. government was involved in the creation of the mpox virus and COVID-19, and that the U.S. is “developing biological weapons capable of self-defense through selective targeting.” of races.”

“The US government is concerned that this false narrative may be a prelude to false flag operationwhen Russia itself uses biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and then tries to blame Ukraine and/or the United States,” the State Department said at the time.

Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in the war.

Kirillov was convicted in absentia by a Ukrainian court on December 16 of using chemical weapons banned in Ukraine during Russian military activity in Ukraine which started on Feb. 2022.

About three years into the ongoing war with Russia, the Russian army had it made small but steady progressadding to the roughly one-fifth of Ukraine they already control.

Since Russia invaded, several prominent people have been killed in targeted attacks believed to be carried out by Ukraine.

Daria Dugina, an analyst for Russian TV channels and the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a diplomat with ties to the Kremlin, He died in 2022 from a car bomb which the investigators suspected was directed at his father.

Vladlen Tatarsky, a famous military blogger, died in April 2023when the photo was given at a party in St. A Russian woman, who presented an image at the command of her contact in Ukraine, he was convicted and was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

In December 2023, Illia Kiva, a former pro-Moscow Ukrainian lawyer who fled to Russia, he was shot and killed near Moscow. Ukraine’s military intelligence service recommended the execution, warning that other “Ukrainian traitors” would meet the same fate.

On December 9, a car bomb in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Donetsk killed Sergei Yevsyukov, the former warden of Olenivka Prison where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war died in a missile strike in July 2022. One more person. was injured in the explosion. Russian authorities said they had arrested a suspect in the attack.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect that the Russian military led by Kirillov does not control the country’s nuclear weapons, as previously stated, but only its biological and chemical weapons.

Emmet Lyons contributed to this report.