Ukraine claimed credit Tuesday for the assassination of a senior Russian general on a Moscow street with the remote detonation of a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building. Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed as he left for his office, as was Kirillov’s assistant. Several countries, including Britain and Canada, had sanctioned Kirillov, 54, for his actions in Moscow’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons. An SBU official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said the agency was behind the attack. The official described Kirillov as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.” The SBU has said it recorded more than 4,800 occasions when Russia used chemical weapons on the battlefield since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. In May, the U.S. State Department said that it had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a poison gas first deployed in World War I, against Ukrainian troops. Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in…Read more