Senior Russian general responsible for nuclear protection forces in Moscow has been killed after a bomb hidden in an electric scooter exploded on Tuesday, according to Russia’s investigative committee.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt, a road located about seven kilometres southeast of the Kremlin.
“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 radioactive, chemical, and biological defence troops, known as RKhBZ, are special forces trained to operate under conditions involving radioactive, chemical, or biological contamination.
On Monday, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Kirillov in absentia with the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, according to the Security Service of Ukraine, as reported by the Kyiv Independent. Russia has denied those accusations.
In October, Britain sanctioned Kirillov and the nuclear protection forces, citing the use of riot control agents and multiple reports of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin being deployed on the battlefield.
