Lt. General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, and his deputy were killed early Tuesday in an explosion in Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out the attack in a special operation, per Ukrainian security sources. Russian officials swiftly vowed retaliation against Ukraine’s leadership.
The explosion reportedly occurred when an explosives-laden scooter was detonated remotely outside an apartment building in the Russian capital. Video circulating online appeared to show Kirillov and his deputy leaving the building moments before the scooter exploded.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target since he gave orders to use prohibited chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” a source within the SBU told CBS News. “Such an inglorious end awaits everyone who kills Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”
Russia’s deputy chairman of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, promised swift revenge against Ukrainian leaders for the attack, according to Russia’s RIA news agency.
The bomb, equivalent to about 300 grams of TNT, was remotely triggered, Russian state news agency Tass reported. Investigators and forensic experts are examining the scene, which Russian authorities have classified as a terrorist attack, according to Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for the Investigative Committee.
Kirillov and his unit have been sanctioned by multiple Western countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Canada, for alleged use of chemical weapons during Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s SBU claims that Russia has used chemical weapons over 4,800 times since its full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
In May, the U.S. State Department sanctioned Kirillov’s unit, citing its use of chloropicrin—a poison gas first deployed in World War I—against Ukrainian troops. The U.S. also accused Kirillov of spreading claims that the U.S. developed biological weapons like COVID-19 and the mpox virus. The State Department previously warned these narratives could be a precursor to a “Russian false-flag operation” involving biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine, which would be blamed on the United States and/or Ukraine.
