Ukraine Counts Chem-Bio Coup
LTG Igor Anatolyevich Kirillov
A top Russian general is killed in a Moscow bombing claimed by Ukraine
A senior Russian general was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed as he left for his office. Kirillov’s assistant also died in the attack.
Kirillov, 54, was under sanctions from several countries, including the U.K. and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s war in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
An official with the SBU said the agency was behind the attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, described Kirillov as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.”
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Since Russia invaded, several prominent figures have been killed in targeted attacks believed to have been carried out by Ukraine.
Kirillov is the most senior Russian military official to be killed in Moscow since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. He was leading radioactive chemical and biological defense troops known as the RKhBZ. These forces are trained to operate under conditions of NBC contamination and are tasked with protecting ground forces operating in such extreme conditions.
A day before the attack, he was sentenced by Ukrainian prosecutors in absentia with the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine said. Swift justice?
For the record a LTG in the Russian military is a two-star rank.
