Moscow, 17 December 2024— An explosion in Moscow on Tuesday morning claimed the lives of Lt. General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s nuclear and chemical defense forces, and his assistant.
According to the Russian Investigative Committee, the blast was triggered remotely by an explosive device placed on a scooter near an apartment building.
The bomb, which had the equivalent force of approximately 300 grams of TNT, shattered windows and damaged surrounding brickwork. State television footage showed the aftermath of the explosion, revealing the extent of the damage.
Investigators are currently at the scene, with Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for the Investigative Committee, confirming that forensic experts are working to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident. Moscow has classified the bombing as a terrorist attack.
Kirillov, appointed to lead Russia’s nuclear defense forces in 2017, had been under sanctions by multiple countries, including the U.K. and Canada, due to his role in Russia’s ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
In a statement on December 16, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) formally charged Kirillov for using banned chemical weapons in Ukraine during the war. The U.S. State Department corroborated these claims in May, confirming the use of chloropicrin, a chemical weapon, by Russian forces. The SBU further reported that over 4,800 chemical weapon uses have been documented since February 2022, particularly against Ukrainian troops.
This attack is not the first against Russian officials linked to the ongoing conflict. On December 9, an explosive device targeted Sergei Yevsyukov, head of the Olenivka Prison in Russian-occupied Donetsk. Yevsyukov was reportedly targeted for his role in the deaths of Ukrainian prisoners of war in a 2022 missile strike.
Russia’s Federal Security Service announced on Sunday that a suspect had been arrested in connection with the Donetsk bombing.
As Russia’s nearly three-year military operation in Ukraine continues, it has made steady, though small, territorial advances in the regions it controls, now occupying nearly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.
