December 17, 2024Reuters
par Andrew Osborn et Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters) -A high-ranking Russian general, accused by Kyiv of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops, was killed on Tuesday morning in Moscow by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), according to a source within this Ukrainian intelligence agency.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Investigative Committee announced that Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, had been killed in the explosion of a bomb hidden in an electric scooter.
The attack occurred in front of a residential building located in the southeast of the Russian capital. He also killed Igor Kirillov’s assistant, who was at his side.
An SBU source confirmed to Reuters that Ukraine’s intelligence agency was behind the explosion.
Ukraine considered Igor Kirillov a war criminal and an “absolutely legitimate target,” added the same source, accusing the Russian general of having ordered the use of chemical weapons against Kyiv’s forces.
The assassination of Igor Kirillov, the highest-ranking Russian army officer killed by Ukraine, could prompt Russian authorities to review the security protocols of the army’s top brass and find ways to avenge him.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, said Ukraine’s military and political leaders now face imminent revenge, according to a report by Russia’s RIA news agency.
Reuters photographs and video showed the broken entrance to an apartment building, its bricks blackened by the explosion, and what appeared to be two bodies lying under black plastic sheeting on the snow.
A criminal investigation has been opened, the national investigative committee said in a press release.
Police sources told Russian media that a terrorism investigation was likely.
HE WORKED “FEARLESS”, RUSSIA SAYS
Russian radioactive defense troops, known as NBC, are special units that operate in conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination.
The killing of Igor Kirillov comes a day after Ukrainian prosecutors indicted him in absentia for the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, according to a report by The Kyiv Independent citing the Security Service of Ukraine .
Russia denies these allegations.
Igor Kirillov has occasionally appeared on Russian television to accuse Ukraine of violating nuclear security protocols or the West of various alleged crimes.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said the slain general had worked “fearlessly” for “the motherland” to expose what she called crimes related to chemical weapons and others. crimes committed by the West.
In October, the United Kingdom sanctioned Igor Kirillov and the nuclear protection forces for using chemical riot control agents, with widespread reports also of the use of chloropicrin, a suffocating gas, on the battlefield.
According to Ukraine, these agents are used to disorient its troops and prevent them from defending themselves against Russian attacks.
Russia accuses Ukraine of having carried out a series of targeted assassinations on its soil since the start of the war launched by Moscow against Ukraine in February 2022.
Among the most high-profile cases is the assassination in 2022 of Daria Dougina, daughter of Russian nationalist theorist Alexander Dugin, and that of blogger Vladlen Tatarski in 2023.
(Moscow office and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; French version Diana Mandia; edited by Augustin Turpin)
