Moscow
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the Russian military general in charge of the country's nuclear protection forces, was killed in an explosion in Moscow on Tuesday (Dec 17).
A report by the news agency Reuters said that Lieutenant General Kirillov was assassinated by Ukraine's SBU intelligence service.
Kirillov was killed outside an apartment building along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off, Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said.
Reuters reported that a bomb was hidden inside an e-scooter which was parked near the apartment building.
Ukraine claims responsibility for killing
An SBU source confirmed to Reuters that the Ukrainian intelligence agency had been behind the hit. "The liquidation of the chief of the radiation and chemical protection troops of the Russian Federation is the work of the SBU," the source said.
The source said that a scooter containing explosives was detonated, killing both Kirillov and his aide, as they stepped into the entrance of a house on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow.
Kirillov, 54, is the most senior Russian military officer to be assassinated inside Russia by Ukraine and his murder is likely to prompt Moscow to review security protocols for the army's top brass and to find a way to avenge his killing.
'No security at residential block'
Footage from the explosion site showed a police cordon and damage to the shattered entrance to a building littered with rubble. Reuters reported that an investigation was launched.
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Speaking to the news agency, a resident said that there was no security around the building where Kirillov was killed. The resident said she did not know that the general lived there.
“They (killers) used the electric scooter. And there’s a scooter parking there, near the entrance. So who knew? At the moment you see a lot of police. But usually, everything is open. Anybody can go in and out, drive in and out,” she added.
A day before his death, Ukraine charged Kirillov
A day before his death, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Kirillov in absentia with the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine said.
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This comes months after Britain in October sanctioned Kirillov and the nuclear protection forces for using riot control agents and multiple reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin on the battlefield.
(With inputs from agencies)