A senior Russian military official killed in the explosion of a booby-trapped scooter in Moscow

Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, commander of Russia’s nuclear, chemical and biological defense forces, lost his life on Tuesday, 17 December 2024, in an explosion near a residential building in Moscow. The attack, carried out using an electric scooter rigged with explosives and parked at the building’s entrance, also killed his assistant. The explosive device, detonated remotely, caused significant material damage: the building’s entrance was destroyed, and the windows of several apartments were shattered, as shown in images shared by the media.

An operation claimed by Ukraine

A few hours after the attack, Ukrainian security services claimed responsibility for the assassination of Igor Kirillov. He had been in office since 2017 and was accused by Kyiv of orchestrating the massive use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine. He had been sentenced in absentia by a Ukrainian court the day before his death. Sanctioned by the United Kingdom last October for his alleged role in the “deployment of barbaric chemical weapons,” he was a central figure in Russia’s military strategy.

This is the first time since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, in February 2022, that a Russian military officer of such high rank has been assassinated on national soil. This event, described as a “terrorist act” by the Russian investigative committee, marks a symbolic turning point in the ongoing conflict.

Russian authorities have launched a criminal investigation and deployed experts to the scene to determine the exact circumstances of the explosion. Meanwhile, the international press is questioning the strategic implications of this attack, as Russia intensifies its military offensives on the Ukrainian front.