It was a gruesome morning scene. Two bodies lay sprawled in front of a shattered apartment block. Blood was visible on a thin coating of white snow. Wreckage was strewn over the pavement: broken glass, bricks, door frames, and an e-scooter tossed into a corner by a mighty explosion.
Two men had been leaving a residential building when the blast happened. It was 6.12am. One was Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian army’s chemical weapons division. Kirillov was a key player in Moscow’s ruthless war against Ukraine. The other was Kirillov’s assistant. Video shows their last moments as they walked into the street. Both appear to have died instantly.
