Ukraine claimed credit Tuesday for the assassination of a senior Russian general on a Moscow street with the remote detonation of a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed as he left for his office, as was Kirillov’s assistant.
Several countries, including Britain and Canada, had sanctioned Kirillov, 54, for his actions in Moscow’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
An SBU official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said the agency was behind the attack. The official described Kirillov as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.”
The U.S. has been Ukraine’s main arms supplier during its war with Russia, but State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, "I can tell you that the United States was not aware of [the killing of Kirillov] in advance and was not involved.
“Obviously, he was a general who was involved in a number of atrocities,” Miller added. “He was involved in the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian military … in violation of international law on the battlefield.”
Ukraine’s SBU has said it recorded more than 4,800 occasions when Russia used chemical weapons on the battlefield since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. In May, the U.S. State Department said that it had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a poison gas first deployed in World War I, against Ukrainian troops.
Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.
Kirillov, in his current job since 2017, was one of the most high-profile figures to level the accusations against Kyiv. He held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive substances — claims that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as propaganda.
Russian news reports said the bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was triggered remotely. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork.
The SBU official provided video that they said was of the bombing. It shows two men leaving a building shortly before a blast fills the frame.
Russia’s top state investigative agency said it’s looking into Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, described the attack as an attempt by Kyiv to distract public attention from its military failures and vowed that Ukraine’s “senior military-political leadership will face inevitable retribution.”
Over the past year, Russia, despite heavy losses, has gained territory in eastern Ukraine, even as Ukraine claimed land in Russia’s Kursk region during an August incursion.
Since Russia invaded, several prominent figures have been killed in targeted attacks believed to have been carried out by Ukraine.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press.
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