Tue Dec 17 07:09:36 UTC 2024: ## Top Russian Nuclear General Killed in Moscow Bombing
**MOSCOW** – A senior Russian general responsible for the country’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, was killed in a bomb explosion in Moscow on Tuesday. The Investigative Committee of Russia confirmed the death, stating that a bomb hidden inside an electric scooter detonated outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt. Kirillov’s assistant also perished in the blast.
Graphic images circulating on Russian social media showed significant damage to the building’s entrance and the victims lying in the snow. A criminal investigation has been launched.
Gen. Kirillov headed Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops (RKhBZ), a specialized unit operating in hazardous environments. His death comes just one day after Ukrainian prosecutors charged him *in absentia* with the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine – accusations Russia vehemently denies. The UK previously sanctioned Gen. Kirillov in October for the alleged use of riot control agents and chloropicrin in Ukraine.
The circumstances surrounding the bombing remain under investigation, but the incident represents a significant blow to the Russian military and raises concerns about potential escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.
First Piper 