Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the Russian military general in charge of the country's nuclear protection forces
Story highlights
In Russia, Kirillov was regarded as an enthusiast and a fighter for the Truth – against the sins of the West. The West also accused him of supervising the process of ensuring the use of chemical weapons in trying to win the war with Ukraine. The Russian diplomat who was killed in an electric scooter explosion in Moscow was identified as Igor Kirillov who was the head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection troops in October 2020. Reuters reported that Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service assassinated Lieutenant General Kirillov on Tuesday (December 17).
Kirillov died from gunfire in front of an apartment block with his assistant when an explosive device placed in an electric scooter detonated, this committee is similarly aware. As per the report, the improvised explosive device had been housed inside an e-scooter that was left near the apartment building.
A body is seen covered on the ground after an explosion that killed Lt. General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons unit, and his assistant, in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 17, 2024
Ukraine later admitted to his murder and said that the man was eliminated by one of its intelligence services.
Who was Igor Kirillov?
- The Commanding Officer of the NBC Protection Troops of the Russian Federation Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, and his assistant, died when an explosive hidden in an electric scooter was triggered near an apartment building, the Investigative Committee of Russia informed.
- 54-year-old Kirillov was the most senior Russian military officer to be killed inside Russian territory and the perpetrators blamed on Ukraine. It is believed that his death will trigger a rethink on the security of top brass officers in the military.
- Kirillov oversaw Russia’s nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare troops which was a separate force created to defend soldiers in such areas as radioactive, toxic-infectious areas or chemical-biological dangerous regions.
- He died a day after Ukraine filed a criminal case against him in absentia on accusations of using prohibited chemical weapons. In a report from the Kyiv Independent, SBU accused that the charges were based on its reports.
- On the position since 2017, Kirillov and his unit were not responsible for Russia’s nuclear weapons. He was accused by Kyiv of committing war crimes against Ukraine, with charges filed a day before the assassination.
- Moscow has dismissed accusations of the use of chemical weapons in warfare. Kirillov, a married man with two sons, was a frequent guest on state TV accusing Ukraine of not maintaining nuclear safety and the West of various misdeeds.
- In October, Britain labelled Kirillov and his forces as terrorists and put them on sanctions for their use of riot control agents and multiple instances of using the deadly choking agent, chloropicrin. Ukraine has accused such agents of confusing its forces and making them an easy target for attack by Russia.
In Russia, Kirillov was considered an ordinary hardworking patriot who actively stated the truth about the Western “sins”. He was also accused by the West of the manipulation behind the chemical weapon usage in a war with Ukraine.
Moscow has previously dismissed Kyiv’s claims that it deploys chemical weapons in combat and Kirillov, who was married with two sons, occasionally featured on state television providing briefings from the Defence Ministry, where he accused Ukraine of breaching nuclear control standards or the West of various offences.
Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence troops, known as RKhBZ (Russian: Войска радиационной, химической и биологической защиты Вооружённых сил Российской Федерации), which Kirillov commanded, are special forces who must perform tasks in conditions when the territories are contaminated by various chemical agents and perform defensive functions protecting the ground forces under conditions which are hazardous for life such as radioactive, chemical and biological contaminated.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Kirillov had been working ‘courageously’, ‘to the death’, for ‘the Motherland’ to uncover what Russia alleges to be the Western chemical weapons-related and other ‘sins’ in Syria and other places, which were cover-ups according to Moscow.
He rose to fame through unconventional briefings at Russia’s defence ministry, prompting the UK Foreign Office to describe him as a “key amplifier of Russian disinformation”.
He was more than a mere figurehead, for he was heading Russia’s Timoshenko Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Academy before leading the Russian army’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops in 2017.
The troops could look for risks and shield other formations from getting infected while also “making a loss to the enemy through flame-incendiary ways.”
The UK Foreign Office stated that the force Kirillov commanded had used “barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine” while noting that it proved the widespread use of riot control agents as well as “multiple reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin”.
Kirillov gained popularity from the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine because of the certain statements he was supplying to both Ukraine and the West. However, these claims were not based on any facts It fails to submit any letter, document, or evidence to this court to support any of these claims.
Among the staggering statements of the President, one was the statement that the US was constructing bio-weapons laboratories in Ukraine.
Last month, he also said that “one of the primary objectives,” of Ukraine’s counterattack into the Russian-speaking Kursk province was to capture the Kursk nuclear power station.
With inputs from agencies
Image Source:Reuters
*The views expressed are personal to the author and do not reflect the platform's opinion of the same.
© Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved Powered by Vygr Media.
