Russian military chief and aide killed in Moscow bombing

An explosive device planted close to a residential apartment block in Moscow has killed the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical defence forces, investigators said.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his assistant died in Tuesday’s blast, triggered by a device placed in a scooter, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said: “Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene.

“Investigative and search activities are being carried out to establish all the circumstances around this crime.”

On Monday, Ukraine’s security service accused Lt Gen Kirillov of using banned chemical weapons during Russia’s military operation in Ukraine which started in February 2022.

The SBU said it had recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons on the battlefield since February 2022, particularly K-1 combat grenades.

In May, the US State Department said it had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a chemical weapon first used in the First World War, against Ukrainian troops.

Lt Gen Kirillov, who was named the head of Russia’s nuclear defence forces in April 2017, was under sanctions from several countries including the UK and Canada for his role in Ukraine.

Tuesday’s attack is not the first to target a Russian official.

On December 9, an explosive device was placed under a car in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Donetsk, reportedly targeting Sergei Yevsyukov, the head of the Olenivka Prison where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war died in a missile strike in July 2022.

One other person was injured in the blast.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Sunday that a suspect had been arrested and charged with detonating the device.

During the almost three-year operation in Ukraine, Russia has added small but steady territorial gains to the nearly one-fifth of the country it already controls.