Russian General Indicted By Ukraine Killed In Moscow Explosion

What we know about Kirillov’s death so far

Ukraine has claimed responsibility for killing Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the man who headed Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protections forces, in Moscow on Tuesday morning.

Kirillov routinely made unfounded claims about Ukraine’s alleged use of chemical weapons

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, attends a press conference in Moscow, Russia, in this still image from video released November 5.Russian Defence Ministry/Reuters

From CNN’s Christian Edwards, Clare Sebastian and Maria Kostenko

Before his death in Moscow on Tuesday, Igor Kirillov regularly accused Ukraine of using – or planning to use – chemical weapons, without providing evidence.

When the United Kingdom placed sanctions on Kirillov in October, it said he had been “a significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation, spreading lies to mask Russia’s shameful and dangerous behavior.”

In October 2022 – when Ukraine began to liberate territories in Kherson and elsewhere, delivering a major setback to Russia’s invasion – Kirillov made unfounded accusations that Ukraine was planning to detonate a “dirty bomb,” dispersing radioactive matter on its own territory. “This work is in its final stage,” he said.

He also claimed – without evidence – that Ukraine was planning to use “radioactive substances from the spent nuclear fuel storage facilities” at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

In November this year, he claimed that one of the key aims of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was to seize the Kursk nuclear power plant.

Kirillov also suggested repeatedly – and without proof – that the US was planning on delivering infected mosquitos to Russian military personnel by drone.

Before Kirillov’s death, US and UK had sanctioned Russia for use of choking agent in Ukraine

The United States and United Kingdom this year placed sanctions on Russia for its use of the chemical weapon chloropicrin against troops in Ukraine, months before Igor Kirillov was killed in Moscow on Tuesday.

In May, the US State Department assessed that Russia had used chloropicrin – a riot control agent first used in World War I – against Ukrainian forces, which it said was in violation of the international Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), to which Russia is a signatory.

Chloropicrin — an irritant that affects the eyes, skin, throat and lungs — was manufactured for use as a tear gas during the trench warfare of World War I, but was banned under the CWC in 1993.

In October, the UK sanctioned Kirillov himself, saying he was “responsible for helping deploy” chemical weapons on the battlefields of Ukraine.

“Russian forces have openly admitted to using hazardous chemical weapons on the battlefield, with widespread use of riot control agents and multiple reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin – first deployed on the battlefields of WW1,” the UK’s Foreign Office said.

CNN