Ukraine says it has killed Russian general Igor Kirillov in Moscow

A senior Russian army general and his aide have been killed in Moscow by Ukrainian security forces, a Ukrainian source told the BBC.

Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defense Forces (NBC), was outside the residence on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter detonated, Russia’s Investigative Committee (SK) said.

A source in Ukraine’s security service SBU said Kirillov was a “legitimate victim” and said he had committed war crimes.

On Monday, the SBU charged Kirillov, 54, in absentia, it said on Telegram that he was “responsible for the mass use of banned chemical weapons”.

The Ukrainian government has yet to comment on the general’s death.

Images from the scene in southeast Moscow showed a badly damaged entrance to the building with burn marks on the walls and many blown out windows. Two body bags were also seen on the street.

The building was cordoned off Tuesday morning as Russian investigators continued to comb the area.

In October, the UK imposed sanctions to Kirillov, saying he oversaw the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine and served as “an important mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation”.

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

Moscow denies these allegations.

The SK said it had “opened a case for the killing of two soldiers”.

“Investigators, forensics and law enforcement are working at the scene,” the statement said.

“Investigative actions and search operations are carried out with the aim of finding all criminal cases.”

Russian state news agencies reported that the explosive device – which killed Kirillov and his aide on Ryazansky Avenue – contained the equivalent of 300g (0.7lb) of TNT.

They also said bomb experts and expert search dogs searched the area and no other explosives were found.

Experts told BBC Confirm that judging by the images of the incident, the explosion appears to have been caused by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED)a type of homemade bomb that usually consists of readily available parts, such as nails or glass.

Assassinations of top officials have been carried out in Russia before, but attacks in Moscow are rare.

Liza, who lives in one of the buildings not far from where the explosion happened, told the BBC that although she was not at all surprised, the killing of Igor Kirillov was shocking.

“It’s one thing to read about it in the news, it sounds far away, but when it happens next door, that’s completely different and scary,” he tells me.

“Until now, [the war] I felt like it happened far away – now there is a dead person, here, you can feel the effect,” said Liza, adding that “unfortunately, I don’t think things will calm down soon”.

Many other residents of the area said that at first they thought that the loud noise they heard was coming from the construction site.

Student Mikhail Mashkov, who lives in a neighboring building, told AFP he was woken by a “loud explosion”, thinking “something had fallen on the construction site”, before looking outside.

Olga Bogomolova said she thought that a container had fallen on the construction site but then she realized that it was a “strong explosion”, she saw “broken windows” and that it was something else.

Residents told the BBC of their deep shock.

Even after almost three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, for many Muscovites, the war is a distant phenomenon – something they only see on television or on their phones.

The assassination of a Russian general in Moscow is a sign that this war is real and very close to home.

Under the UK sanctions, Kirillov was subject to an asset freeze and travel ban.

In May, the US has accused Russia of installing chemical weapons as a “method of war” in Ukraine, in violation of international laws prohibiting their use.

State department officials said Russia used the chokehold chloropicrin to win “advantages on the battlefield” over Ukraine.

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

Col Artem Vlasiuk of Ukraine had previously said that more than 2,000 Ukrainian service members were hospitalized for chemical poisoning during the war and three people died.

The Kremlin rejected the allegations at the time, calling them “baseless”.

Kirillov has served in various roles in the Russian military related to hazardous materials, including the Office of the Chief of the Radiological, Chemical and Defense Forces.

He was named head of NBC in 2017.

Reacting to the death of Kirillov, the spokesman for the Prime Minister of the UK, Sir Keir Starmer, said: “It is clear that we cannot mourn the death of someone who spread illegal attacks and caused suffering and death to the people of Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s Security Service appears to be increasing its targeting of Russian adults, nearly three years into the conflict.

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 the Ukrainian military intelligence service.

Russia’s top military officer Valery Trankovsky and Russian prison warden Sergei Yevsyukov they also died after car bombings in Russian-controlled Ukraine in recent weeks.