Ukraine assassinated a top Russian general inside Moscow on Tuesday morning, just a day after the country accused him of war crimes involving the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield. General Igor Kirillov, 54, became the highest-ranking Russian official killed inside Russia since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago. Kirillov and an aide were killed after they walked out of a residential building, and a scooter packed with explosives was detonated when the two men walked by. The blast was so powerful that it damaged windows as high as the third floor of the building and shattered windows in buildings across the street, The New York Times reported. Investigators said that the bomb had the same explosive yield as two pounds of TNT. VIDEO: ?? Russian army’s chemical weapons chief killed in Moscow blast Igor Kirillov was killed in a brazen attack which has been claimed by Kyiv, becoming the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin’s campaign in Ukraine drags on#AFPVertical pic.twitter.com/vw0yHF30vz — AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 17, 2024 Kirillov was the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces and was wanted by Ukraine for his use of the banned chemical weapon chloropicrin against troops in Ukraine. He was sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K. for using the weapon. CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE “Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical substances against the Ukrainian military,” a Ukrainian official told CNN. “Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.” The report said that there had been nearly 5,000 recorded instances of Russian troops using the illegal chemical weapon under Kirillov’s orders. . Ukraine has killed other top Russian military officials in targeted assassinations, including two in just the last month. Ukraine’s security services took credit for the assassination of a senior commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Russian-occupied Crimea and the assassination of a senior Russian naval officer who ordered missile strikes on civilian targets.