MOSCOW: Russia’s nuclear defense chief Igor Kirillov and his aide were killed in an explosion in southeastern Moscow on Tuesday morning. The...
MOSCOW: Russia’s nuclear defense chief Igor Kirillov and his aide were killed in an explosion in southeastern Moscow on Tuesday morning.
The blast was caused by an explosive device hidden inside an electric scooter, Spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee Svetlana Petrenko said.
TASS has compiled the key details about the incident.
Circumstances of the blast
- On the morning of December 17, an explosive device planted in a scooter detonated near the entrance of a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow, investigators revealed.
- Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, 54, and his aide died in the explosion.
Criminal investigation
- The Russian Investigative Committee has classified the blast as a terrorist attack, Committee Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told TASS.
- A manhunt for the perpetrator is currently underway.
- Bomb experts are working at the scene.
- The area around the blast site has been cordoned off.
- Senior officials from the Russian Interior Ministry’s Moscow department have arrived, along with investigators, medical personnel, and emergency services.
- Law enforcement estimates the explosive device had a capacity of about 300 grams of TNT equivalent.
Who was Igor Kirillov?
- Kirillov was born in Kostroma on July 13, 1970.
- He graduated from the Kostroma Higher Military Command School of Chemical Defense in 1991 and the Marshal Semyon Timoshenko NBC Protection Military Academy in 2007.
- Kirillov had served as Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops since April 2017.
Charges brought by Ukraine
- Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has filed charges in absentia against Kirillov, the agency said on its Telegram channel.
- The SBU alleges Kirillov was "responsible for the widespread use of prohibited chemical weapons" in Ukraine. Additionally, Kiev accuses the senior general of military crimes.
Moscow’s response
- Kirillov worked for years to "present evidence exposing crimes committed by the Anglo-Saxons and NATO," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.
- Deputy speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, or upper house of parliament, Konstantin Kosachev, condemned the assassination of the senior Russian general in charge of Russia’s NBC protection troops as irretrievable loss.
- Andrey Kartapolov, Chairman of the Defense Committee of Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament), stated that the organizers and perpetrators of the crime will be found and punished, wherever they are.
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