Chief of Russia’s nuclear protection forces killed in Moscow explosion

A high-ranking Russian general, in charge of nuclear protection forces, was killed in an explosion in Moscow on Tuesday, news agency Reuters said.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who is chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt, near the Kremlin. The incident came a day after Kirillov was charged in absentia with the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine.

According to Russian investigative agencies, the bomb, which was hidden in an electric scooter, exploded, resulting in the death of Kirillov and another person.

“Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, and his assistant were killed,” an investigative committee was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.

Visuals from the ground showed a shattered entrance to a building littered with rubble and two bodies lying in the blood-stained snow. Reuters footage from the scene showed a police cordon. A criminal case has been filed after the incident.

Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence troops, known as RKhBZ, are special forces who operate under conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination.

On Monday, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Kirillov in absentia with the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine said, according to the Kyiv Independent. Russia, however, denied the accusations.