KYIV, Dec 17 – A Russian general who was wanted by Ukraine for using chemical munitions was killed by a remotely detonated bomb in Moscow on Tuesday, Russian authorities said.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s radiological, biological and chemical protections forces, was killed by an explosive device planted in an electric scooter.

Ukraine’s security services were behind the assassination, a Ukrainian source told CNN, calling Kirillov a “war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target.”

This comes a day after Ukrainian prosecutors charged the general in absentia with the use of banned chemical substances in the war on Ukraine.

The explosion that killed Kirillov is the most ambitious targeted attack of the war so far on Russian soil, carried out by the Ukrainian security services and hitting not only at the core of Russia’s military, but close to the heart of the nation’s capital.

An exploding scooter taking out a senior general is certainly not a good look for Russia’s beefed-up internal security apparatus. But it’s also a measure of the urgency Ukraine feels when it comes to wrestling back the initiative in this war by any means possible, as the clock ticks down to the return of Donald Trump to the White House, and Russia continues its steady advance on the eastern front.

Kirillov, as the head of Russia’s radiological, biological and chemical protection troops, was believed by Ukraine and its allies to have played a particularly destructive role in the conflict, responsible for the widespread use of chemical substances and riot agents such as CS gas on the battlefield.

He was also an expert at deploying disinformation, an essential tool for maintaining support for the war at home. In one of his final public appearances in November, he claimed Ukraine’s main goal when it invaded Russia’s Kursk region was to seize the Kursk nuclear power plant, and reupped a two-year-old Russian conspiracy theory that Ukraine was planning to build a dirty bomb.

Assassinations of key military figures on Russian soil, either directly or indirectly linked to Ukraine, have been a feature of this war. In July last year, a former submarine commander, Stanislav Rzhitsky, was shot in the southern city of Krasnodar while out for a run. And yet Kirillov’s death marks the fourth incident in the last two months alone.

In October, Dmitry Golenkov, a pilot with Russia’s 52nd heavy bomber regiment was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in Russia’s Bryansk region. In mid-November, a source with Ukraine’s security services told CNN it was responsible for a car bomb in Sevastopol, Crimea, that killed the chief of staff of Black Sea Fleet missile ships.

And less than a week ago, the deputy chief designer of Russia’s Mars Design Bureau was shot in a Moscow park. CNN’s Ukrainian security source confirmed Kyiv was behind his killing, saying he was responsible for upgrading some of the cruise missiles fired at Ukraine. (cnn/ez)