Russia's Investigative Committee announced that Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, commander of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, was killed by an explosive device planted near a residential apartment complex in Moscow early Tuesday morning.
Officials said Kirillov's assistant was also killed in the explosion caused by a device installed on the scooter.
Russia's state news agency Tass reported that the bomb was set off remotely, citing unnamed emergency services sources.
Russian investigators have opened a case against the two men, said commission spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko.
“Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,” she said in a statement.
“Investigation and search operations are underway to establish all the circumstances surrounding this crime.”
On December 16, Ukrainian security services indicted Kirillov on charges of using banned chemical weapons during Russia's military operation in Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
Ukraine's Security Service SBU announced that since February 2022, more than 4,800 cases of the use of chemical weapons, especially K-1 combat grenades, on the battlefield have been recorded.
In May, the U.S. State Department also announced in a statement that it had documented the use of chloropicrin, a chemical weapon first used in World War I, against Ukrainian forces.
Kirillov, who was appointed commander of Russia's nuclear defense forces in April 2017, has been sanctioned by several countries, including Britain and Canada, for his role in Ukraine.
During the nearly three-year campaign, Russia has steadily gained small but steady gains in nearly one-fifth of the territory of Ukraine it already controls.
