A top Russian general who had been accused of using chemical weapons on the battlefields in Ukraine was killed after a bomb went off in Moscow early Tuesday, Russian investigators said, in an attack swiftly claimed by Kyiv.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s radiological, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a remotely detonated bomb planted in an electric scooter outside an apartment building some 7 kilometers (4 miles) southeast of the Kremlin, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.
This happened just one day after Ukrainian prosecutors handed Kirillov in absentia a guilty verdict over Russia's use of banned chemical weapons in its invasion. A source familiar with the operation revealed to CNN that Ukraine's security service, the SBU, was responsible for the attack.
"Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical substances against the Ukrainian military," the source told CNN. "Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable."
Kirillov, 54 years old, was the most senior military officer whose death is known to be from Russian actions since it launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The assistant of Kirillov was killed in the blast as well, and the media named him Ilya Polikarpov in Russian media.
A video obtained by CNN from a source with knowledge of the operation shows the moments before the two men were killed in the explosion. The outline of what appears to be a scooter can be seen to the right of the door of the residential building. As the two men step outside and walk toward a car, the bomb detonates and the screen flashes white.
According to TASS, Russian state news agency, the bomb carried explosive power equivalent to some 300 grams of TNT. Later, a CNN team at the scene found blast marks on the entrance of a residential building that had been cordoned off by investigators.
Russia's Investigative Committee opened an investigation into the attack, calling it a "terrorist act.
The SBU on Monday said that since the war began, over 4,800 cases of Russian use of chemical munitions have been recorded on Kirillov's orders – in particular, grenades equipped with irritant chemical agents.
CNN has previously reported on Russia's use of tear gas as a weapon in Ukraine.
Before his death, the United States had sanctioned Kirillov's government entity for its alleged use of the chemical weapon chloropicrin against troops in Ukraine.
Chloropicrin – which affects the eyes, skin, throat and lungs – was manufactured for use as a tear gas during the trench warfare of World War I. It was banned in 1993 under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), to which Russia is a signatory.
In May, the US State Department said that Russia used such weapons "to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield."
The United Kingdom also sanctioned Kirillov in October for the "deployment of barbaric chemical weapons" in Ukraine.
It turned into some three years of war where he would usually make baseless statements suggesting the Ukrainian regime was using chemicals. Britain said Kirillov served as a "leading propagandist of kremlin disinformation."
In October 2022 – when Ukraine began to liberate territories in Kherson and elsewhere, delivering a major setback to Russia's invasion – Kirillov made unfounded accusations that Ukraine was planning to detonate a "dirty bomb," dispersing radioactive matter on its own territory. "This work is in its final stage," he said.
In November this year, he stated that one of the key goals of Ukraine's invasion into Russia's Kursk region was to capture the Kursk nuclear power plant.
Kirillov was the second such killing of late. Some days ago, a high ranking officer Black Sea Fleet Officer Valery Trankovsky was attacked with a car bomb attack in occupied Crimea last month and his killing occurred.
Ukraine security service orchestrated this killing, and this detail is shared with CNN by an agency source.
Russian president Vladimir Putin didn't offer his statement until now as most of his officials slammed his killing harshly in a furious rage.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council launched a scathing attack on Ukraine's military and political leadership on Tuesday, saying: "Law enforcement agencies must find the killers in Russia and everything must be done to destroy the perpetrators who are in Kyiv."
Konstantin Kosacehv, a senator at the Federation Council and chair of its Foreign Relations Committee, said he was shocked by the "irreparable loss" of Kirillov.
"The killers will be punished. Doubtless and merciless," he said on Telegram.
Member of the State Duma Andrey Kartapolov said that people involved in the murder "will be found and punished".
Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry, said Kirillov had been "systematically exposing the crimes" of the West for many years, citing a number of conspiracy theories, including "the deadly activities of American biolabs in Ukraine," which has been consistently debunked.
Zakharova also panned the West, but didn't mention specific countries. "All those who welcome terrorist attacks or deliberately keep their silence are accomplices… The silence of the UN Secretariat is an obvious sign of corruption," she wrote Tuesday in a Telegram post.
Mark Galeotti, a leading Russia analyst, said that although Kirillov's assassination is another "embarrassment" to the Kremlin's security forces, it will not have a major effect on its war effort.
"Without him there, someone else just moves up. That's the nature of the chain of command," Galeotti told CNN.
However, Ukraine's recent targeting of senior military officials represents a change in strategy designed to unsettle Russia's elites, he said.
In and of itself, this is not going to end the war, but it does speak to the fact that there is a significant faction – particularly the Russian officer corps – that isn't very happy with the war," he said. Ukraine's attacks "send a message" that supporting the invasion bears a price.
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