ReutersA top general of the Russian Armed Forces and his aide have been killed in an explosion in Moscow.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces (NBC), was leaving a residential block early Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter detonated.
Photos from the scene showed a building’s entrance badly damaged, with burn marks on the walls and several windows blown out. Two body bags could also be seen on the road.
In October, Britain imposed sanctions. on Kirillov, saying he oversaw the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine and served as “an important mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation.”
On Monday, Ukraine’s secret service, the SBU, charged him in absentia, it said On Telegram He was “responsible for the large-scale use of prohibited chemical weapons”.
Russia denies the allegations.
Russia’s main investigative authority, the Investigative Committee, said it had “opened a criminal case into the murder of two soldiers”.
“Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,” he said.
“Investigative operations and operational search activities are being carried out with the aim of determining all the circumstances of the crime.”
A.PUnder UK sanctions, Kirillov was subject to an asset freeze and travel ban, with the Foreign Office describing him as “a key mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation”.
In May, The United States accused Russia of installing chemical weapons In violation of international law banning their use as a “method of war” in Ukraine.
State Department officials said Russia used the choking agent chloroprene to win “battlefield victories” over Ukraine.
The Kremlin dismissed the allegations as “baseless” at the time.