Key Russian general killed in Moscow bomb blast claimed by Ukraine

(CNN) — A top Russian general 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.

The blast came a day after Ukrainian prosecutors sentenced Kirillov in absentia for Russia’s use of banned chemical weapons during its invasion. A source with knowledge of the operation later told CNN that Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, was behind 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, who was 54, is the most senior military official known to be killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His assistant, named in Russian media as Ilya Polikarpov, was also killed in the blast on Ryazansky Street.

A video – obtained by CNN from a source with knowledge of the operation – showed 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 towards a car, the bomb detonates and the screen flashes white.

The bomb packed explosive power amounting to some 300 grams of TNT, Russian state news agency TASS reported. A CNN team on the ground later saw blast marks at the entrance to a residential building, cordoned off by investigators.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a probe into the attack, calling it a “terrorist act.”

Ukraine’s SBU on Monday said that more than 4,800 cases of Russian use of chemical munitions had been recorded on Kirillov’s orders since the war began – particularly 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.

The US State Department said in May 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.

Over nearly three years of war, Kirillov had routinely made unfounded claims about Ukraine’s alleged use of chemical weapons. The UK accused Kirillov of acting as a “significant mouthpiece for 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 claimed that one of the key aims of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was to seize the Kursk nuclear power plant.

Kirillov’s assassination is the latest in a series of targeted attacks on Russian military personnel. Last month, a senior Black Sea Fleet officer Valery Trankovsky was killed in a car bombing in occupied Crimea. The assassination was carried out by Ukraine’s security service, a source in the agency told CNN.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment publicly, however many Russian officials have responded furiously to Kirillov’s death.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council launched a scathing attack of 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 murderers will be punished. Without a doubt and without mercy,” he wrote on Telegram.

Andrey Kartapolov, a member of the State Duma, said those involved in Kirillov’s murder “will be found and punished.”

Maria Zakharova, 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 took a swipe at the West, without naming any specific countries, saying in a Tuesday Telegram post: “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.”

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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CNN’s Victoria Butenko, Clare Sebastian, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Catherine Nicholls, Benjamin Brown, Mariya Knight and Zahid Mahmood contributed reporting.