New Delhi: A top Russian general heading the country’s Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC) and his assistant were killed in a bomb blast Tuesday. Lt Gen. Igor Kirillov’s killing came a day after Ukraine accused him of ordering use of banned chemical weapons.
Russia’s federal investigating agency, the Investigative Committee, said the high-ranking general was killed when a device hidden in a scooter exploded as he was leaving a residential block. The device was detonated remotely, reported Russian state-run news agency Tass.
According to a report by BBC, Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had “opened a criminal case into the murder of two servicemen” and investigators, forensic experts and operational services were working at the scene. The agency is also reported to have said that the probe is aimed at bringing out “all the circumstances of the crime”.
Pictures of the scene carried by Reuters show the damaged entrance to a building, and its windows blown out. The pictures also show two body bags placed immediately outside the building, on the street.
On Monday, Ukraine’s internal security agency, the SBU, in a telegram post alleged Lt Gen Kirillov was “responsible for the mass use of banned chemical weapons”.
“Russian forces mostly use ammunition with toxic substances by dropping them from FPV (first-person-view) drones on Ukrainian positions. When chemical grenades are detonated, their poisonous compounds affect human mucous membranes, especially the eyes and respiratory tract,” it said.
Adding, “By order of Kirillov, since the beginning of the full-scale war, more than 4,800 cases of the enemy’s use of chemical weapons have been recorded.”
Kirillov’s killing comes four days after Mikhail Shatsky, who is said to have overseen modernisation of Kh-59 and Kh-69 missiles used by Russia against Ukraine, was reportedly shot dead near his home.
Before that, on 28 September, Aleksey Kolomeitsev, a Russian colonel who trained specialists in use of attack drones, was killed in the city of Kolomna in Moscow Oblast, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR).
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