Ukraine says it killed Russia's chemical weapons chief; Moscow vows revenge
The bomb was triggered remotely and had the power equivalent to roughly 300g of TNT, Russian media reports.
The bomb was hidden in an electric scooter / Photo: Reuters
Ukraine's security services have killed Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in a special operation in Moscow, Reuters and AFP wire agencies reported, quoting unnamed sources.
Kiev regarded Kirillov as a war criminal and an "absolutely legitimate target", accusing him of ordering the use of prohibited chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces in the war, a source told Reuters news agency.
Kirillov, who was the chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed on Tuesday on Ryazansky Prospek road, some 7 kilometres southeast of the Kremlin after a bomb hidden in an electric scooter exploded.
Kirillov’s assistant also died in the blast.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said the Ukrainian leadership would face imminent revenge for the killing of the general, RIA news agency reported.
"Realising the inevitability of its military defeat, it launches cowardly and despicable strikes in peaceful cities," he said.
Photographs posted on Russian Telegram channels showed a shattered entrance to a building littered with rubble and two bodies lying in the blood-stained snow.
A criminal case has been opened.
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