Ukraine assassinated a senior Russian army officer in the heart of the Russian capital

At the heart to the Russian capital, Moscow, an explosion was very powerful, as Ukraine’s escalated by overtaking an assassination operation against Russia.

According to the detail, Ukrainian intelligence targeted a senior military commander who holds a sensitive responsibility, which is the command of the Russian radiation, chemical and biological defense forces.

General, Igor Kirillov, who has long been accused by Ukraine of using chemical weapons inside its territory, and is subject to US and British sanctions for this reason.

He is by far the most senior Russian military official to be targeted on Russian soil since the Kremlin launched its attack on Ukraine in February 2022, and it’s also a rare event in the Russian capital, where tight security measures are in place.

Surveillance cameras captured Kirillov and his assistant leaving a building on Tuesday morning, and then a large explosion could be seen. Investigations later revealed that it was a bomb placed on a scooter parked near the entrance to a building, according to the Russian Investigative Committee.

The building’s entrance was badly damaged and windows in several apartments were shattered, and police have set up a security cordon.

According to Russian Kommersant newspaper, the Russian general and his aide were killed by a homemade explosive device weighing about 300 grams of TNT.

Russia confirmed his death in the incident, and that it had opened an investigation into a terrorist operation.

Remarkably, his killing came one day after a Ukrainian court filed charges in absentia against him related to the widespread use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Ukrainian security services said Russian forces dropped ammunition containing toxic compounds on Ukrainian positions in an attempt to force Ukrainian soldiers out of their trenches.

The Ukrainian Security Service confirmed that since February 2022, more than 4,800 cases have been recorded in which the Russian army used chemical munitions, according to Reuters.

The Washington Post quoted a Ukrainian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that Kirillov was killed Tuesday morning in a “special operation” carried out by the Ukrainian Internal Security Service.

Kirillov has held senior positions in the CBRN Defense Forces since 2012, according to reports from the independent Russian Meduza Foundation.

He graduated from the Kostroma Military School of Nuclear and Chemical Protection Troops, and since 2012 has held command positions in the troops. In May 2017, Kirillov was appointed its chief.

After the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he appeared in regular briefings accusing the United States and Ukraine of using biological weapons, which he claimed were created in some biological laboratories in Kiev.

Reuters says that since he is the highest-ranking military officer to be assassinated inside Russia, his death is likely to prompt Russian authorities to review security protocols for senior military leaders and find a way to avenge his death.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now deputy head of national security, was quoted by Russian RIA news agency as saying that Ukraine’s military and political leadership would face imminent retaliation.

Moscow accuses Kiev of being behind a series of assassinations on its territory, which it says are aimed at weakening morale and punishing those it accuses of committing war crimes.

The explosion comes a week after a top Russian cruise missile engineer, who helped develop missiles used in the war in Ukraine, died in Moscow.

In April 2023, an explosion in a St. Petersburg cafe killed war correspondent Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky, and the Ukrainian Security Service was blamed.

In July 2024, a car exploded in Moscow, injuring Russian General Staff officer Andrei Turgashov.

In November, Sergei Yevsyukov, the head of the Olenivka prison, where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war died, was killed in a missile strike in July 2022; Yevsyukov was killed in a car explosion in Donetsk.