Europe
The head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces has been killed in an explosion in Moscow
Associated Press
December 17, 2024
Maj. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the Russian military's radiation, chemical and biological protection unit, attends a briefing in Kubinka Patriot park, outside Moscow, Russia, on June 22, 2018. (AP)
MOSCOW — The head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces, Lt. General Igor Kirillov, was killed early Tuesday by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment block in Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
Kirillov’s assistant also died in the blast.
Kirillov was sentenced in absentia by a Ukrainian court Monday for the use of banned chemical weapons during Russia’s military operation in Ukraine that started in Feb. 2022.
During the almost 3-year operation, Russia has made small-but-steady territorial gains to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine it already controls.