Assassination of the commander of the Russian army's chemical and biological defense forces

The Russian Investigative Committee announced the death of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, commander of the Russian Army's radiation, chemical and biological defense forces, in an explosion that occurred in the capital, Moscow, on Tuesday morning.

The committee said in a statement that an explosive device planted in an electric bike that was located at the entrance to a residential building on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow was detonated this morning, killing Kirillov and his assistant.

The statement indicated that the authorities are conducting an investigation to determine the circumstances of the crime, adding that a criminal case has been opened into the killing of the soldiers.

The Ryazansky Prospekt, where the explosion occurred, begins about 7 kilometers (4 miles) southeast of the Kremlin. Investigators and forensic experts were working at the scene along with other emergency services, TASS reported.

Media reports said the explosive device exploded as Kirillov and his assistant were leaving the building at around 6 a.m.

Russia Today quoted a security source as saying that the force of the explosion ranged, according to initial data, between 100 and 300 grams of TNT.

Kirillov, 54, has been in office since 2017 and was placed on Western sanctions lists over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls the "Russian special military operation in Ukraine."

Kirillov regularly held press briefings at the Defense Ministry, where he spoke about projects being developed in the Pentagon's biological laboratories on the territory of Ukraine to use biological weapons against Russia, as well as about threats emanating from the territory of Ukraine to use chemical and radioactive materials (the so-called dirty nuclear bomb) against Russia.

Source: Agencies