Igor Kirillov, head of the radiological, biological and chemical protection department of the Russian Ministry of Defense, speaks at a press conference regarding the alleged chemical attack on the Syrian city of Duma at Patriot Park in the Moscow region on June 22, 2018.
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A top Russian commander accused by Ukraine of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military was assassinated by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence in Moscow on Tuesday morning in the highest-profile killing of its kind. It was done.
The Russian Investigative Committee, which investigates serious crimes, said Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the commander of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed outside his apartment building with his assistant when a bomb hidden in his electric scooter exploded. announced that he had died.
An SBU official confirmed to Reuters that Ukrainian intelligence services were behind the attack. “The purge of the heads of the radiological and chemical protection units of the Russian Federation is the task of the SBU,” the official said.
Officials said Kirillov and his entourage were killed when a scooter loaded with explosives exploded as they entered the entrance to a house on Moscow’s Ryazansky Prospekt.
Mr. Kirillov, 54, was the most senior Russian military officer ever assassinated in Russia by Ukraine, and his killing prompted Russian authorities to review security regulations for senior military officials. It is likely that you will find a way to take revenge.
State news agency RIA quoted former president and current Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev as saying that Ukraine’s military and political leadership now faced imminent revenge for Kirillov’s murder.
Moscow has held Ukraine accountable for a series of high-profile assassinations in the country aimed at weakening morale and punishing those Kiev deems guilty of war crimes. Ukraine says Russia’s war against Russia poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state, but has made clear that it considers such targeted killings a legitimate means.
Reuters photos and video from the scene show a shattered apartment entrance with bomb-blackened bricks and a door hanging off its hinges, appearing to lie under a black plastic sheet on the snow. There were two bodies in the photo.
Investigators announced that they have opened a criminal case for the murder of two military personnel. Law enforcement officials told Russian media that a terrorist incident was likely to be launched.
Kirillov worked “fearlessly for the Motherland”
Russia denies Ukraine’s claims that it used chemical weapons on the battlefield, and Kirillov himself, who is married with two sons, is sometimes shown on state television giving press conferences at the Defense Ministry. It accused Ukraine of violating nuclear safety protocols, or Western countries, on various counts. crime.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova paid tribute to Kirillov, saying that he had worked “fearlessly” for the “motherland” and had been involved in the fight against Western countries’ chemical weapons and other crimes, as well as Russia’s cover-up. She said she exposed what she claimed was a set-up. Both in Syria and elsewhere.
Britain imposed sanctions on Kirillov and his nuclear defense forces in October for the use of riot control agents and multiple reports of the use of the toxic asphyxiant chloropicrin on the battlefield.
Ukraine claims such operatives could be used to disorient its forces, leaving them unable to defend themselves against Russian attacks.
The Kyiv Independent reported at the time that the SBU said he was killed a day after Ukraine’s state prosecutor reportedly indicted Kirilov in absentia on charges of using banned chemical weapons.
The lieutenant general was also listed in a vast unofficial Ukrainian database of people considered to be Ukraine’s enemies, called Milotvorets (peacemakers). Kirillov’s photo on the website was overwritten on Tuesday morning with the word “liquidation” written in red letters.
Russia has announced that since Moscow’s all-out war against Ukraine began in February 2022, Ukraine has carried out a series of targeted assassinations within the country.
The most high-profile cases include the 2022 car bombing of Russian nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin’s daughter Darya Dugina, and the 2023 2023 murder of pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a cafe bombing. The killings, and last year’s shootings. Russian submarine commander accused of war crimes by Kiev.
Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces, known as RKhBZ, commanded by Kirillov, are special forces tasked with operating in conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination and protecting ground forces operating in extreme conditions. It is.
