Kiev accuses him of using prohibited chemical weapons in Ukraine, including suffocating toxic agent chloropicrin. He became famous for having contributed to the development of the TOS-2 Tosochka heavy flamethrower system and for accusing enemies of wanting to develop “dirty” weapons. Igor Kirillovleader of the troops of the department of nuclear defensechemical and biological officer of the Russian armed forces killed this morning in Moscow, is the highest ranking officer killed in Russia since the beginning of the war.
Born July 13, 1970 a Kostromaa river center in western Russia, Kirillov had attended the Chemical Defense School of the Higher Military Command of his city, where he graduated in 2007. During his time there, between 1991 and 1995, he had served as a platoon commander in the Western Group of Forces in Germania and in the Moscow Military District. Since April 2017, he was the head of the troops of the nuclear, chemical and biological defense department of the Russian Armed Forces. Notes like RKhBZthe latter are special forces that operate in conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination and have the task of protecting ground forces operating in extreme conditions. Prior to this role he was director of the Russian Academy of Radiation Protection, Chemical and Biological Protection “Timoshenko”.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the agency reports Lapressethe department he led had managed the operation to support the Italian healthcare system with the aid mission “From Russia with love“, with which in March 2020 Moscow sent doctors, nurses, military personnel and some experts to Italy, led by general Sergey Kikot. The mission that reached Rome from RomeSan Giovanni XXIII Hospital of Bergamo, one of the most affected cities, was then abruptly interrupted and it was hypothesized that with the sensitive information collected Moscow was able to develop the vaccine Sputnik. The then government of Giuseppe Conte he was harshly criticized for having exposed the country to a possible threat to its security at such a delicate moment.
Kirillov had been subjected to sanctions by several countries, including the United Kingdom (most recently in October) and Canada. Yesterday, December 16, the Ukrainian security service SBU had charged him in absentia in a criminal trial for having used banned chemical weapons on the eastern and southern fronts of Ukraine, in what Moscow calls the special military operation that began in February 2022. The SBU had said it had recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons on the battlefield from February 2022, particularly K-1 combat grenades. Kirillov had become known abroad for his extravagant briefings to the Russian Defense Ministry, which prompted London to call him a “major spokesperson for misinformation of the Kremlin”.
Among his most discussed statements is that according to which the United States would have built laboratories biological weapons in Ukraine. In March 2022, to demonstrate his thesis, he produced documents which, according to him, had been seized on the day of the Russian invasion, February 24, and which had then been amplified by the pro-Kremlin media, but denied by independent experts. One of Kirillov’s most recurring arguments was that Ukraine was trying to develop a “dirty bomb“.
An accusation he returned to last summer, this time claiming the discovery of a chemical weapons laboratory nearby Avdiivkaa city in eastern Ukraine captured by the Russians in February. According to Kirillov, Kiev was violating the International Chemical Weapons Convention by using a number of substances, with the assistance of Western countries, includingpsychochemical warfare agent BZas well as hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride. Last year, remember the Financial Timesthe general went so far as to claim that Ukraine had plans to launch “special” drones, designed by the US, with “infected insects” that would bring the malaria among Russian forces and had also led the Russian effort to discredit allegations of chemical weapons use by Bashar al-Assad in Syria: “The provocation staged by the White Helmets and their sponsors a Khan-Sheikhun April 4, 2017 was among the most important and publicized incidents, it was the first time that a chemical attack was being staged“, he said in June 2018, accusing the mission in Syria of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of not respecting the standards of the international body it represents in its reports.
In August of the same year, however, Kirillov had stated that a Dumain Syria, had been found Italian equipment for the production of toxic substances. According to the general, “chlorine cylinders produced abroad” had also been found on a total of “42 sites”. A real “laboratory with [attrezzature di] foreign production”. “We didn’t mention the exact country at the time of the discovery (in June, ed.) – he said -, but the equipment had the writing ‘Made in Italy‘”.
Then, in March 2022, he stated that the Russian Ministry of Defense was in possession of correspondence between Hunter Bidenthe son of the president of the United States, with the employees of Defense Threat Reduction Agency American and Pentagon contractors, which confirmed its crucial role in providing funding for work with the pathogens in Ukraine.
