A high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces and his assistant have been killed in Moscow by Ukraine’s security service, a Ukrainian source has told the BBC.

Lt Gen IGOR KIRILLOV, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defences Forces (NBC), was outside a residential block early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated remotely, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

A source in Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed Kirillov was “a legitimate target” and alleging he had carried out war crimes.

yesterday, the SBU charged KIRILLOV in absentia, saying  that he was “responsible for the mass use of banned chemical weapons”. The Ukrainian government has not yet commented on the general’s death.

Ukraine’s SBU has claimed Russia used chemical weapons more than 4,800 times under the general’s leadership.

Investigative actions and operational search activities are being carried out aimed at establishing all the circumstances of the crime.”

Russian state news agencies reported the explosive device – which killed 54-year-old Kirillov and his aide in Ryazansky Avenue – had an explosive force equivalent to 300g of TNT. They added that bomb experts and specialist search dogs had inspected the surrounding area and no other explosives had been found.

According to the SBU, Russian forces have used drones to drop chemical weapons on Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukrainian Col Artem Vlasiuk had previously said that more than 2,000 Ukrainian service members have been treated in hospital for chemical poisoning over the course of the war and three people have died. The Kremlin rejected the accusations at the time, calling them “baseless”.

Kirillov served in different roles in Russia’s military associated with hazardous materials, including the Directorate of the Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops .He was appointed head of the NBC in 2017.

Kirillov’s death comes less than a week after a prominent Russian weapons expert was shot dead near his home in Moscow. Ukrainian media reported that the assassination of Mikhail Shatsky was carried out by Ukraine’s military intelligence service.

BBC NEWS