Igor Kirillov: Russian general in charge of nuclear troops killed by blast in Moscow

A senior Russian general in charge of nuclear protection forces has been killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter, Russia’s investigative committee says.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who is in charge of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, died in the street outside a block of flats about four miles (7km) southeast of the Kremlin.

His assistant also died in the explosion.

“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,” Reuters reported the investigative committee as saying.

Photographs posted on Russian Telegram channels showed two bodies lying in the blood-stained snow next to the wrecked entrance to a building.

Russian news agency TASS said the bomb contained the equivalent of 300g of high explosive.

Several cars and the first four floors of the apartment building were damaged, the news agency added.

Police are investigating.

Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence soldier, known as RKhBZ, are special forces who operate when there is a threat from radioactive, chemical and biological contamination.

On Monday, a Ukrainian prosecutor charged Mr Kirillov in absentia with allegedly using banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine reportedly said.

Russia denies those accusations.

In October, the UK sanctioned Kirillov and the nuclear protection forces for using riot control agents, with reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin on the battlefield.

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