Russian Lt Gen assassinated

Says head of nuclear defence forces was responsible for using chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops: Moscow

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an apartment building along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off, on Tuesday morning. The top Russian general accused by Ukraine of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops was assassinated in Moscow by Ukraine's (SBU) intelligence service (SBU) in what is being termed as the most high-profile killing of its kind.

An SBU source confirmed to Reuters that the Ukrainian intelligence agency had been behind the hit. "The liquidation of the chief of the radiation and chemical protection troops of the Russian Federation is the work of the SBU," the source said. The source said that a scooter containing explosives was detonated, killing both Kirillov and his aide, as they stepped into the entrance of a house on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow.