Ukraine claims it’s behind Moscow blast that killed head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces

The head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, Lt. General Igor Kirillov, was killed along with his deputy early Tuesday in an explosion in Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. Ukrainian security sources told CBS News the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) killed Kirillov in a special operation. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.

The sources said a scooter with explosives was detonated as Kirillov and his assistant were entering an apartment building.

“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, since he gave orders to use prohibited chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” an informed source in the SBU asserted to CBS News. “Such an inglorious end awaits everyone who kills Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”

The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said Ukraine’s leaders would face imminent revenge for the killing, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.

The bomb was triggered remotely and had the power equivalent to roughly 300 grams of TNT, Russian state news agency Tass reported, citing unnamed sources in the emergency services.

“Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,” said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for Russia’s national Investigative Committee, in a statement. “Investigative and search activities are being carried out to establish all the circumstances around this crime.”

She also said the Kremlin was treating it as a terrorist attack.

Kirillov and the unit he headed have been sanctioned by several countries, including the U.K., Canada and the U.S., for the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.  

Ukraine’s SBU has said it recorded more than 4,800 occasions when Russia used chemical weapons on the battlefield since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022. In May, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against Kirillov’s unit, saying the U.S. had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a poison gas first deployed in World War I, against Ukrainian troops.

Kirillov had been in his post since April 2017, AFP notes.  

Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.

Kirillov was sentenced in absentia by a Ukrainian court on Dec. 16 for the use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine during Russia’s military operation in Ukraine that started in Feb. 2022.

Almost three years into Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine, Russian troops have made small but steady advances, adding to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine they already control.

contributed to this report.