The commander of the nuclear, chemical and biological defense troops of the Russian Armed Forces, Igor Kirillov, was killed in an unprecedented attack in Moscow, claimed by Kiev. Kirillov, 54, is the highest-ranking military officer killed in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. He was accused by Kiev of using banned chemical weapons during the war. Moscow, which has always rejected the accusations, spoke of an “act of terrorism” and promised “imminent revenge”. Kirillov was killed along with his assistant when an explosive device – placed on the handlebars of an electric scooter and activated remotely – exploded outside an apartment building in the south-east of Moscow, while the Russian officer was walking towards the car he would take him to work. The attack – a video of which was released online – occurred in a residential area of the capital a day after President Vladimir Putin boasted of the successes of Russian troops in Ukraine. The device contained between 100 and 300 grams of TNT, according to Russian sources. According to the Telegram channel Mash, with links to Russian law enforcement, the general’s driver, who was in the car at the time of the explosion, is the only survivor.
Kirillov – who since 2017 led the Rkhbz, the unit for defense against nuclear, bacteriological and chemical attacks – was under sanctions from Britain and Canada for the alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. A source from the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) told international media that Kiev intelligence, which considers Kirillov a “war criminal”, was responsible for this “special operation”. The Russian Investigative Committee opened a case for a “terrorist attack” while the vice president of the Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, warned the Kiev leadership of “imminent revenge”. The UK said Kirillov was also “a major spokesperson for Kremlin disinformation”, a reference to public briefings in which the general regularly accused Kiev of plotting to use chemical weapons and develop a “dirty bomb”.
Last year Kirillov even said that Ukraine planned to launch special US-designed drones carrying “infected mosquitoes” that would spread malaria among Russian forces. Kirillov also led Russian efforts to discredit reports of the use of chemical weapons in Syria by Moscow’s ally, dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown by the rebel coalition that seized power in Damascus. Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, wrote on Telegram that Kirillov spent “many years denouncing the crimes of the Anglo-Saxons.” In these almost three years of war in Ukraine, there have already been other excellent murders on Russian territory, but today’s attack in Moscow is unprecedented for the rank of the victim. The attack bears hallmarks of the work of Ukrainian spy agencies inside Russia, where they have cultivated a network of secret agents to carry out targeted killings of key military personnel and acts of sabotage against the enemy’s war machine. Ukrainian intelligence agencies rarely officially claim these operations. The advisor to the Ukrainian president, Mikhail Podolyak, has ruled out Kiev’s involvement in Kirillov’s murder.
