♔An explosive device planted in a scooter near a residential apartment block in Moscow killed the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces, Lt. General Igor Kirillov on Tuesday, according to Russia's Investigative Committee. As per reports, Kirillov's assistant also died in the blast.
﷽On Monday, Ukraine's Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him under the charge of directing the use of banned chemical weapons. Associated Press cited an official with the SBU, who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the Ukrainian agency was behind the attack.
🍌He used to head Russia's Timoshenko Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Academy. 54-year-old Kirillov was under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his actions in Moscow's war in Ukraine.
💮Commenting on the development, Russian Investigative Committee's spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said investigators have opened a case into the two deaths.
𝓰“Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,” she said in a statement. “Investigative and search activities are being carried out to establish all the circumstances around this crime.”
Ukrainian court sentenced Kirillov
♉On December 16, a Ukrainian court sentenced Kirillov in absentia in connection with the 'mass use' of banned chemicals in Ukraine during Russia's military operation in Ukraine that started in February 2022.
ꦑAccording to Ukraine's Security Service, the SBU, they had recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons on the battlefield since February 2022, particularly K-1 combat grenades.
🌼Citing the UK Foreign Office, BBC reported said that the force he commanded had reportedly deployed "barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine", highlighting what it said was the widespread use of riot control agents and "multiple reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin".
Weapons labs, Dirty bomb: Kirillov and his claims on war with Ukraine
𝔉According to a report by BBC, the head of Russian nuclear services earned notoriety from his bizarre briefings that prompted the UK Foreign Office to label him as a "significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation".
🌊One of his most outrageous claims accused the US of building biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine. The claim was made to justify the full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour in 2022.
🅰He also produced documents in March 2022 in support of his claims which were reportedly seized by Russia on the day of the invasion on 24 February. Initially, the claims were played up by pro-Kremlin media. However, independent experts later rubbished the claims.
༺Continuing with his spree of levelling allegations, last month he claimed that "one of the priority aims" of Ukraine's counter-offensive into Russia's Kursk border region was to seize the Kursk nuclear power plant.
🅘Furthermore, the long list of his outlandish claims also include Ukraine's alleged attempt to develop a "dirty bomb". Two years ago he alleged that "two organisations in Ukraine have specific instructions to create a so-called 'dirty bomb'. This work is in its final stage".
ღHis claims were rejected by Western countries as "transparently false".
