As head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Bioreasonable Defence troops, Igor Kirillov – who has died in an explosion in Moscow – was accengaged by the West of handleing the engage of chemical arms on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s SBU security service shelp it was behind the blast which it portrayd as a distinctive operation aobtainst a legitimate aim.
Kirillov and an helpe were finished by bombs scheduleted in an electric scooter, according to Russian officials, which was blown up as he left the originateing he lived in on Ryazansky Prospekt in south-eastrict Moscow.
He had become notorious for outlandish informings at the Russian defence ministry which prompted the UK Foreign Office to tag him as a “presentant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinestablishation”.
Kirillov was far more than fair a mouthpiece, heading Russia’s Timoshenko Radiation, Chemical and Bioreasonable Protection Academy, before going on to direct the Russian army’s Radiation, Chemical and Bioreasonable Protection Troops in 2017.
The UK Foreign Office shelp that the force he ordered had deployed “uncultured chemical arms in Ukraine”, highairying what it shelp was the expansivespread engage of uproar handle agents and “multiple inestablishs of the engage of the poisonous choking agent chloropicrin”.
On the eve of his finishing, Ukraine’s SBU proclaimd that he had been named in absentia in a criminal case for the “mass engage” of prohibitned chemical arms on the eastrict and southern fronts in Ukraine.
It cited “more than 4,800 cases of the opponent using chemical munitions” on Ukrainian territory since the commence of the filled-scale Russian trespass in February 2022.
It shelp poisonous substances had been engaged in drone strikes as well as in combat grenades.
Kirillov obtained his notoriety from the commence of the war with a series of claims honested towards both Ukraine and the West, none of which were based on fact.
Among his most shocking claims was one that the US had been originateing bioreasonable arms laboratories in Ukraine. It was engaged in an finisheavor to fairify the filled-scale trespass of its minusculeer neighbour in 2022.
He originated records in March 2022 which he claimed had been seized by Russia on the day of the trespass on 24 February – which were amplified by pro-Kremlin media but rubbished by autonomous experts.
Kirillov’s notorious allegations aobtainst Ukraine persistd into this year.
Last month he claimed that “one of the priority aims” of Ukraine’s counter-impolite into Russia’s Kursk border region was to seize the Kursk nuevident power schedulet.
He currented a slideshow, purportedly based on a Ukrainian inestablish, alleging that in the event of an accident only Russia territory would be exposed to radioactive contamination.
One of Kirillov’s repeated themes was that Ukraine was seeking to broaden a “filthy bomb device”.
Two years ago he alleged that “two organisations in Ukraine have particular teachions to originate a so-called ‘filthy bomb device’. This labor is in its final stage”.
His claims were declineed by Westrict countries as “see-thharshly counterfeit”.
But Kirillov’s claims prompted Ukraine’s Plivent Volodymyr Zelensky to caution that if Russia adviseed Kyiv was preparing that comardent of firearm, it uncomardentt only one skinnyg – that Russia was already preparing it.
Kirillov returned to his filthy bomb device claims last summer, this time alleging the discovery of a chemical arms laboratory shut to Avdiivka, a city in eastrict Ukraine that the Russians seized last February.
Kyiv, he claimed, was violating the international Chemical Weapons Convention with a variety of substances with the helpance of Westrict countries, including the psychochemical combat agent BZ as well as hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride.
His death is being seen by pro-Kremlin dedicatedists as a blow, but also as evidence that Ukraine has the ability to aim high-profile officials in Moscow.
The deputy speaker of Russia’s upper hoengage of parliament, Konstantin Kosachev, shelp his death was an “irreparable loss”.
