Explosive device kills head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops in Moscow • Novaya Gazeta Europe • RIMA

Explosive device kills head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops in Moscow

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov gives a briefing at the Defence Ministry in Moscow, 22 June 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE / SERGEI CHIRIKOV

An explosion in Moscow has killed the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the country’s Investigative Committee announced in a statement on Tuesday.

“According to investigators, on the morning of 17 December, an explosive device that had been planted in a scooter standing near the entrance of a residential building was detonated on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow,” the statement read, adding that both Kirillov and his assistant had been killed in the explosion.

Criminal investigators and forensics teams were working at the scene of the incident in an attempt to clarify the circumstances around the explosion, the statement continued, adding that a criminal case had been opened, although it was not specified under which article.

The explosive device, which was remotely detonated, according to Russian state news agency TASS, contained 300 grams of explosive material, various Telegram channels reported, and also blew out windows from lower floors of the apartment and damaged to general’s official car, according to Telegram channel Baza.

Kirillov had been due to appear for a press briefing at the Defence Ministry later on Tuesday, Telegram news channel 112 reported. At his briefings on emerging threats in the field of biological and chemical weapons, Kirillov frequently claimed that the United States was using secret laboratories in Ukraine to develop biological weapons including mosquitoes and migratory birds designed to spread viruses.

On Monday, the Security Service of Ukraine announced that a criminal case had been opened against Kirillov, under whose orders, according to Ukrainian investigators, Russian troops had used chemical weapons on over 4,800 separate occasions since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Kirillov, who had been sanctioned by the UK, Canada and Ukraine, had headed Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops since 2017.