Moscow:Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, has claimed responsibility for killing Lt. General Igor Kirillov, head of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, in a bombing Tuesday in Moscow. Kirillov, 54, was killed alongside his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov when a bomb planted on a scooter exploded outside an apartment block.
An official with the SBU said the agency was behind the attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information, described Kirillov as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.” On Monday, Kirillov was charged in absentia by the SBU for "ordering the use of banned chemical weapons against Ukraine’s Defense Forces."
Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out other high-profile attacks throughout the nearly three-year-old war. Kyiv has hinted at its involvement but Ukrainian officials have stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility.
Recent Assassinations and Attacks:
December 17, 2024: Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter detonated outside an apartment building. Ukraine’s SBU security service called Kirillov "a legitimate target," accusing him of war crimes. In October 2024, the UK sanctioned Kirillov for overseeing the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.
December 12, 2024: Ukrainian media reported that Mikhail Shatsky, a software developer responsible for modernising Russian cruise missiles, was shot dead outside Moscow.
December 9, 2024: Sergei Yevsyukov, head of a prison in Russian-occupied Olenivka, was killed in a car bomb. The prison was associated with the deaths of over 50 Ukrainian POWs in a controversial explosion in July 2022.