Abdujalil Abdurasulov
Reporting from Kyiv

The BBC's sources in Ukraine's security services claim they were behind the operation to kill Igor Kirillov in Moscow.

According to a source, a scooter with explosives was detonated when Kirillov and his assistant approached the building in Moscow this morning.

The source claims that Kirillov was "a legitimate target" since he was a war criminal who gave orders to use banned chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military.

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Russia editor, reporting from Moscow

This is an ordinary residential area in south-east Moscow – a typical apartment block. Residents are completely shocked by what happened.

The considerable blast came from a bomb that was hidden, investigators say, in a scooter outside the entrance to this apartment block.

A lot of police and investigators are on the scene now looking for clues to try to work out what exactly happened.

Ukrainian media is also reporting that Lt Gen Kirillov was killed by the Ukrainian security services.

The Kyiv Independent and news agency RBC Ukraine say he was killed by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), citing an unnamed source from the agency.

The BBC has contacted the SBU.

Ukraine was behind the killing of Lt Gen Kirillov in Moscow, a Ukrainian security source has said, according to both Reuters and AFP news agency.

Since 2022, Lt Gen Kirillov repeatedly claimed - without providing evidence - that Ukraine was developing a "dirty bomb", meaning a weapon that would spread nuclear material.

He said the goal was to blame Russia for its use. There is no evidence Kyiv was working to develop such a weapon.

Kirillov also claimed the US was going to provide biological weapons to Ukraine, and claimed that this would include targeting Russian troops with malaria-infected mosquitos.

And, back in 2018, he suggested, external the UK was involved in the poisoning of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

As a reminder, the UK sanctioned Kirillov in October - and described him as a "significant mouthpiece for Russian disinformation".

What social media images can tell uspublished at 08:00 Greenwich Mean Time

08:00 GMT

Image source, Getty Images

BBC Verify has been looking at two videos and two stills from the scene, claiming to show the bodies of Lt Gen Kirillov and his assistant.

The images match the location seen in the Reuters photographs posted earlier, but add some extra detail.

At one point we see double doors beside a bench, within 15ft of two bodies face down on the pavement. We can tell exactly where this spot is, on a street looking north toward the massive Ryazansky Prospekt which runs through Moscow.

The videos also show the destruction around a doorway closer to the bodies - bricks strewn, door blown out - appearing to tie in with Russian media statements this was an explosion.

One photo shows one of the two bodies has bled heavily from the leg and the head.

We also put four frames of the first video through a search to check its provenance. What we can see is these images starting to be shared on Russian-language Telegram accounts around 04:30 GMT (07:30 local time), before making it to international media and English-language social media around 06:00.

"Somebody was certainly keen to make it look like this was a form of vigilante justice."

That's the view of Pulitzer prize-winning historian and journalist Anne Applebaum, who has been speaking to our colleagues on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

She says that given Kirillov was charged by the Ukrainians yesterday for using chemical weapons, her first thought was the timing looks like it was set up "very carefully".

Asked if she suspects Ukrainian involvement in the killing, Applebaum says she has no evidence to link it to them or anyone else.

But "the people who would have a motive would be either the Ukrainians or some of their allies inside Russia", she adds - saying there are Russians known to be collaborating with the Ukrainians.

Image source, Reuters

A woman who heard the explosion this morning tells Reuters that the blast was "so loud".

“At first we thought that cement might have been unloaded or something similar, the local resident says.

"But the blast was so loud that it did not seem like construction works. It was very scary."

Image source, Reuters

• Senior Russian general Igor Kirillov – who was in charge of the country's Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces – has been killed in Moscow
• Kirillov and an assistant were killed by a bomb planted in a scooter which exploded while the pair were leaving an apartment building early on Tuesday
• The explosion took place in south-east Moscow, around four miles (6.5km) east of the Kremlin
• The device was remotely operated and could have contained around 300g of TNT equivalent material, Russia media reports

• Images from the scene show the building's entrance badly damaged with scorch marks and broken windows, with rubble across the floor

• Yesterday, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) charged Kirillov in absentia for using banned chemical weapons in Ukraine

• He has previously been sanctioned by Western nations for his role in the Ukraine war - the UK said he was responsible for "helping deploy... barbaric weapons"

The device that killed Lt Gen Kirillov was remotely operated, Russia's state news agency Tass reports.

It also says the bomb could have contained about 300g of explosive material. It quotes a law enforcement official as saying: "The improvised explosive device had a capacity of some 300 grams in TNT equivalent."

According to a UN tool to estimate damage from blasts,, external 300g of TNT equivalent explosive can break small windows from of a distance of about 17m (55ft) away, or cause damage to brick houses from 1.3m away.

To cause a death, the same amount of TNT would need to explode about 1.55m away from a person, the UN tool estimates.

Yesterday, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) charged Kirillov in absentia (meaning he wasn't in the country) for using chemical weapons in Ukraine.

The SBU alleges that chemical weapons have been used in the country more than 4,800 times since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

They have charged him with committing a war crime. "The pre-trial investigation is ongoing to document other facts of violations of international humanitarian law," the SBU said on Monday.

Ukrainian Col Artem Vlasiuk says that more than 2,000 Ukrainian service members have been hospitalised from chemical poisoning over the course of the war, and three people have died.

According to the SBU, Russian forces drop chemical weapons on Ukrainian soldiers with drones. The "chemical grenades" release poison gases that irritate eyes and the respiratory system.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

In October, the UK placed sanctions on Lt Gen Kirillov, saying he had overseen the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine and spread Russian fake news.

At the time, the UK said Russian forces had "openly admitted to using hazardous chemical weapons on the battlefield" - including "the toxic choking agent chloropicrin", which was first used in World War One.

The Kremlin had previously called accusations of using chloropicrin "baseless".

The UK said Kirillov was "responsible for helping deploy these barbaric weapons", and also sanctioned all his troops from the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence.

"Kirillov has also been a significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation, spreading lies to mask Russia’s shameful and dangerous behaviour," it said.

The sanction meant any assets he had in the UK would be frozen, and he was banned from coming to the UK. He's also been sanctioned by Canada and New Zealand.

Igor Kirillov was a senior Russian general and the head of the country’s Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC).

Kirillov was appointed to head the force in April 2017. According to Russian state-run media outlet Tass, he attended the Kostroma Higher Military Command School of Chemical Defence.

The general served in different roles in Russia’s military associated with hazardous materials, including the Directorate of the Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops.

Yesterday, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) sentenced Kirillov in absentia for using banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The SBU has claimed that Russia used chemical weapons nearly 5,000 times under Kirillov’s leadership.

Kirillov was sanctioned by the UK , externaland Canada, among others, for his role in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Image source, AP

Image source, Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation

A senior general in the Russian armed forces has been killed in an explosion in the country’s capital, Moscow.

Lt Gen Igor Kirillov was leaving an apartment building early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated, Russia’s investigative committee said.

His assistant was also reportedly killed.

Gen Kirillov was in charge of Russia’s nuclear protection forces - the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces.

We’re still learning more about what happened and will bring you more when we have it.