Russian general killed in bomb attack by Ukrainian secret service

Moscow, December 17

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A senior Russian genral was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service levelled criminal charges against him. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.

Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed as he left for his office. Kirillov’s assistant also died in the attack.

Kirillov, 54, was under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s war in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.

An official with the SBU said the agency was behind the attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information, described Kirillov as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.” The SBU has said it recorded more than 4,800 occasions when Russia used chemical weapons on the battlefield since its full-scale invasion in February 2022. In May, the US State Department said that it had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a poison gas first deployed in World War I, against Ukrainian troops.

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

‘Dead North Korean soldier set on fire’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has shared a video he claimed to be of a Russian soldier setting fire to the body of a North Korean soldier killed in combat against Ukraine, saying that the move aimed to hide the presence of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia. The video also featured a close-up of a suspected North Korean soldier and other footage showing a soldier with East Asian features.