Rubble and debris outside the building where the blast occurred in Moscow<\/p>\n
A bomb hidden in an electric scooter has killed a senior general in charge of nuclear protection forces in Moscow, Russia\u2019s investigative committee said.<\/p>\n
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was chief of the Troops of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence, was killed on Tuesday outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt.<\/p>\n
\u201cIgor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, and his assistant were killed,\u201d the investigative committee said.<\/p>\n
According to a law enforcement official, the explosive device \u201chad a capacity of some 300 grams in TNT equivalent\u201d, Russian outlet Tass news agency reported.<\/p>\n
Photographs posted on Russian Telegram channels showed a shattered entrance to a building littered with rubble and two bodies lying in the blood-stained snow.<\/p>\n
A criminal case has been opened.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s radioactive, chemical and biological defence troops are special forces who operate under conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Kirillov in absentia with the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine said, according to the Kyiv Independent.<\/p>\n
Russia denies those accusations.<\/p>\n
In October, the United Kingdom sanctioned Kirillov and the nuclear protection forces for using riot control agents and multiple reports of the use of the toxic agent chloropicrin on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
Chloropicrin is an oily liquid with a pungent odour known as a choking agent that was widely used during World War I as a form of tear gas. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) specifically prohibits its use.<\/p>\n
Russia has said it no longer possesses a military chemical arsenal but the country faces pressure for more transparency over the alleged use of toxic weapons.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Security Service, the SBU, said it had recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons on the battlefield, particularly K-1 combat grenades, since February 2022.<\/p>\n