Sent to hell: moment Kiev death squad bomb kills Putin general who deployed chemical weapons in Ukraine – as footage shows massive blast outside his Moscow home
This is the moment a bomb killed one of Vladimir Putin’s top generals who deployed chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Dramatic footage shows the massive blast that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, 54, head of Vladimir Putin’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Forces.
Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov, 33, emerged from the glass door of his Moscow apartment building when an electric scooter exploded nearby.
The general and his assistant were killed on the spot in the bombing at around 6 a.m. today.
Sources in Ukraine’s SBU security service have said he was a legitimate target and had committed war crimes by masterminding the use of chemical weapons against Kiev’s forces.
A camera used to blow up Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his driver was installed in a car-sharing vehicle parked facing the door of his apartment building.
The lens was pointed at the entrance and wrapped in a cloth so that the equipment was not noticeable. The bomber could have viewed the scene via the Internet and caused the explosion remotely, police said.
Investigators recovered two packages from the car, believed to be a camera and a charger.
Kirillov is believed to be the most prominent military officer to be killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Dramatic footage shows the massive blast that killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, 54, head of Vladimir Putin’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Forces
Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov, 33, emerged from the glass door of his Moscow apartment building when an electric scooter exploded nearby
It is understood the bomb was hidden in an electric scooter when it exploded
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov (pictured), 54, died in the explosion as he emerged from his apartment building with his driver or assistant, who was also killed
Bodies are seen at the site of the blast, which killed the commander of the Russian Armed Forces’ Chemical, Biological and Radiation Defense Forces, Igor Kirillov, and his assistant.
The bombing – claimed by a member of Ukraine’s SBU security service – came a day after Kiev accused Kirillov of overseeing the widespread use of banned chemical weapons against its forces in the conflict zone.
Ukraine’s SBU security service accused him of war crimes in absentia, saying he was responsible for more than 4,800 documented cases of Russian forces using chemical munitions since the start of the full-scale war.
‘Such an inglorious end awaits anyone who kills Ukrainians. Retaliation for war crimes is inevitable,” the SBU source said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed the army general’s death and added that an investigation had been opened into the bombing. Russia has denied allegations that it used chemical weapons in Ukraine.
The British government will not mourn Kirillov, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman said.
“We are not going to mourn the death of someone who promoted an illegal invasion and imposed suffering and death on the Ukrainian people,” he told reporters after the killing claimed by Kiev.
Photos on Russia’s Telegram channels showed a shattered entrance to a building strewn with rubble and two bodies lying in blood-stained snow.
The entrance door to the house itself was torn off and the windows were broken, while the general’s official car, which had arrived to pick him up at 6 a.m., was also damaged.
The bomb was apparently hidden at the scene in or on an electric scooter, which emergency services were able to inspect.
The bomb is believed to have been detonated remotely, creating an explosion equivalent to about 300 grams of TNT, according to investigative reports cited by Russian news service TASS.
Two body bags are seen after the bomb was detonated outside the Moscow apartment
The explosion blew through the entrance to the apartment and damaged the facade of the building
Two bodies can be seen as bystanders watch emergency services on the scene
Footage from the aftermath of the explosion shows a destroyed car as emergency services rushed to the scene
Investigators work at the scene where Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed by an explosive device planted near an apartment building in Moscow, Russia, on December 17, 2024.
The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case following the explosion in Kirillov’s building on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow.
Investigators confirmed the deaths of two men and said a suspect is being identified in the case. The second dead man was identified only as Ilya Polikarpov, Kirillov’s assistant.
“The liquidation of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces is a special operation of the SBU,” a source within the agency told AFP.
The deadly explosion came hours after the SBU said Kirillov had been accused of using banned chemical weapons.
He was accused of masterminding the use of K-1 grenades loaded with banned irritants, CS and CN, as confirmed by two laboratories affiliated with the International Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
They were deployed by FPV drones, with the aim of forcing Ukrainian soldiers out of the trenches and taking them under direct fire.
The weapons cause severe irritation of mucous membranes, including the eyes and respiratory tract, it was claimed.
This had resulted in approximately 2,000 Ukrainian troops being hospitalized since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
The SBU said: “The security service has documented war crimes committed by Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
“The official is responsible for the massive use of banned chemical weapons by Russian militants against forces on Ukraine’s eastern and southern fronts.
“On Kirillov’s orders, more than 4,800 cases of the enemy using chemical munitions have been recorded since the start of the full-scale war.”
Russian police were able to set up a cordon around the body bags after the explosion
The entrance door to the house itself was torn off and the windows were broken, while the general’s official car, which had arrived to pick him up at 6 a.m., was also damaged.
The general was killed in a powerful explosion as he emerged from his apartment building. In the photo: the site of the explosion
Kirillov, who was appointed head of Russia’s nuclear forces in April 2017, was under sanctions from several countries including Britain and Canada over his role in Ukraine.
He participated in the creation and adoption of the TOS-2 Tosochka heavy flamethrower system.
He was also known for spreading conspiracy theories about the Western use of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine.
In March 2022, he gave a Defense Department presentation on alleged US biolabs in Ukraine developing projects to spread biological weapons using bats, birds and even mosquitoes.
Kirillov also accused Ukraine of provocations using toxic chemicals, including a “dirty bomb.”
In August, he said, without providing evidence: “The facts of the simultaneous supply of toxic chemicals and protective equipment against them indicate an attempt to carry out large-scale provocations during the conflict using the psychotropic chemical warfare agent BZ.”
Kirillov’s death is the latest in a series of recent assassinations of high-ranking Russian scientists and military leaders.
Five days ago, Mikhail Shatsky, a designer at the Mars Design Bureau who had been actively working on upgrading Russia’s Kh-59 cruise missile, was shot down.
Kirillov had served as head of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces since 2017
And in late November, Russian naval commander Captain Valery Trankovsky, 47, was killed in a car bombing in Sevastopol
Pictured above is the murdered Russian naval commander Trankovsky
His death came three days after that of notorious Russian prison torturer and murderer Sergey Yevsyukov, 49, who headed the Olenivka prison where Ukrainian prisoners of war were abused. He was killed when his Toyota Landcruiser exploded in a car bomb attack in Donetsk.
And in late November, Russian naval commander Captain Valery Trankovsky, 47, was killed in a car bombing in Sevastopol.
A major hunt has been launched for the bomber, who is believed to have carried out orders from Ukrainian intelligence to kill Kirillov.
Russian police suspect the bomber was using a radio signal and was within range of the accident site when the improvised explosive device detonated.
Camera images were carefully examined.
A bomb disposal robot was brought to the blast site, reports said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed that Kirillov had “systematically, with facts in hand, exposed the crimes of the Anglo-Saxons for years.”
This included ‘NATO chemical weapons provocations in Syria’ and ‘the British manipulation of banned chemicals and provocations in Salisbury and Amesbury’, as well as ‘the deadly activities of US biolabs in Ukraine and much more.
‘They worked fearlessly. Didn’t hide behind the back. He marched with an open mind. For the motherland, for the truth. Clear memory, God rest his soul.’