Moscow, Dec 17 (IANS): Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defence Forces chief, Lt General Igor Kirillov, was killed in a bomb blast in southeastern Moscow early on Tuesday, with top Russian leaders blaming Ukraine for the crime, reports said.
Russian authorities reacted strongly to the incident, saying that he had constantly exposed the West's "crimes" in Ukraine and elsewhere.
The blast occurred around 6 a.m. outside a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue in southeastern Moscow as Kirillov and his aide were leaving the premises to board an official vehicle, RT reported.
Russian investigators said an IED, containing TNT, was likely attached to an electric scooter near the building’s entrance and was most probably detonated remotely, by a radio signal or mobile phone, it added,
The blast shattered windows, damaged the building’s entrance, and destroyed the vehicle.
A criminal investigation under charges of murder, terrorism, and illegal weapons trafficking has been launched and Investigative Committee chief, Aleksandr Bastrykin, is personally supervising the case.
Investigators suspect Ukrainian special services were behind the attack, as per daily Kommersant, citing Kirillov’s regular military briefings, where he accused Kiev and the US of operating bio-laboratories and using chemical weapons.
As per local media, the murder was carried out on the orders of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), which had termed Kirillov as an "absolutely legitimate target".
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Lt Gen Kirillov had "for years systematically and fearlessly exposed Western crimes involving chemical weapons"
Throughout his career he had repeatedly exposed the crimes of the "Anglo-Americans" such as "NATO provocations with chemical weapons in Syria, Britain’s manipulations with prohibited chemical substances and provocations in Salisbury and Amesbury, the deadly activities of American biolabs in Ukraine, and much more", she said.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as Deputy Chairman of the National Security Council, termed the attack Ukraine's "last agony".
"With its last strength, it is trying to justify its worthless existence before its Western masters, to prolong the war and death, to justify the catastrophic situation at the front. Realising the inevitability of its military defeat, it is inflicting cowardly and vile blows in peaceful cities," he said.
State Duma Defence Committee Chairman Andrey Kartapolov described Kirillov as a "worthy Russian general" and a "real officer", stating that had done “a lot to bring the US to justice,” particularly with regard to Washington’s activities in setting up laboratories around the world, including in Ukraine.
He added that Kirillov’s revelations have “caught too many people” and that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if figures outside of Kiev also had a hand in his assassination.
Kartapolov stressed that those who organised and carried out Kirillov’s murder will be found and punished, "whoever they are and wherever they are".
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin also condemned Kirillov’s assassination, stating that it once again highlights "the criminal nature of the Kiev regime".