Ukraine’s secret services (SBU) assassinated Russian lieutenant general and commander of the nuclear protection forces, Igor Kirilov in a special operation carried out in Moscow on Tuesday, a Ukrainian agency source told Reuters.

Reuters could not independently verify the claim, but the source said Kyiv considers Kirilov a war criminal and“absolutely legitimate target”, accusing him of ordering the use of banned chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces in the war.

Kirilov was killed by a bomb explosion hidden in an electric scooter in Moscow, the Russian Investigative Committee said.

The explosion

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who is head of the Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, died outside an apartment building in Ryazansky Praspecht, about 7 kilometers southeast of the Kremlin.

The moment of the explosion in Moscow, which killed the head of the NBC Protection Troops and his driver. pic.twitter.com/io34yGpDOA

— Russian Market (@runews) December 17, 2024

“Igor Kirilov, the head of the radiological, chemical and biological protection forces of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and his aide were killed,” the Investigative Committee said.

Photos posted on Russian Telegram channels show the entrance to a badly damaged building and two bodies lying in the snow.

In Reuters images from the scene of the blast, a police cordon can be seen. Russian authorities are conducting a criminal investigation.

Russian nuclear, chemical, and biological attack defense troops, known as RKhBZ, are special forces operating under conditions of radioactive, chemical,l and biological contamination.

On Monday, Ukrainian prosecutors filed charges in absentia against Kirilov, who had been in the post since April 2017, for allegedly using banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, Ukraine’s Security Service said, according to the Ukrainian online newspaper Kyiv Independent.

Russia denies these accusations.

In October, Britain sanctioned Kirillov and the nuclear protection forces for using riot control agents and for multiple reports of using the toxic asphyxiant chloropicrin on the battlefield.