Igor Kirillov, who died in an explosion in Moscow, was the head of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection forces, accused by the West of overseeing the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine.
In Russia he was considered a tireless patriot who fought for the truth and exposed Western “crimes”.
Sources in Ukraine’s security service SBU claimed to be behind the explosion, describing it as a special operation against a “war criminal” and a legitimate target.
According to Russian officials, Kirillov and an aide were killed by explosives planted in an electric scooter that blew up as he left the building where he was staying on Ryazansky Prospect in southeast Moscow.
He was notorious for outlandish briefings at the Russian Ministry of Defense, which led the British Foreign Office to label him as one “important mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation”.
Kirillov was much more than just a mouthpiece: He headed the Tymoshenko Academy of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection before leading the Russian army’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops in 2017.
The force’s main tasks are to detect dangers and protect units from contamination, but also “to inflict losses on the enemy through the use of flames and incendiary agents,” according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
This was announced by the British Foreign Office that the force he commanded had used “barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine,” highlighting the widespread use of counterinsurgency agents and “several reports of the use of the toxic asphyxiant chloropicrin.”
On the eve of his murder, Ukraine’s SBU said he had been named in absentia in a criminal case over the “mass use” of banned chemical weapons on Ukraine’s eastern and southern fronts.
It cited “more than 4,800 cases of use of chemical ammunition by the enemy” on Ukrainian territory since the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.
Toxic substances were used in both drone attacks and combat grenades, it said.
Kirillov gained notoriety since the start of the war with a series of claims directed against both Ukraine and the West, none of which were based on fact.
Among his most egregious claims were the following: The USA had built biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine. It was used to justify the large-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in 2022.
He presented documents in March 2022 that he claimed were seized by Russia on the day of the invasion on February 24 – which were amplified by pro-Kremlin media but dismissed by independent experts.
Kirillov’s infamous accusations against Ukraine continued this year.
Last month he claimed that “one of the primary objectives” of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Russian border region of Kursk was the capture of the Kursk nuclear power plant.
He presented a slideshow purportedly based on a Ukrainian report claiming that in the event of an accident, only Russian territory would be exposed to radioactive contamination.
One of Kirillov’s repeated themes was that Ukraine wanted to develop a “dirty bomb.”
Two years ago he claimed that “two organizations in Ukraine have specific instructions for making a so-called ‘dirty bomb.’ This work is in its final stages.”
His claims were rejected by Western countries as “patently false”.
But Kirillov’s claims prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to warn that if Russia suggested that Kiev was preparing this type of weapon, it meant only one thing – that Russia was already preparing it.
Kirillov returned to his dirty bomb claims last summer, this time claiming the discovery of a chemical weapons laboratory near Avdiivka, a town in eastern Ukraine that the Russians captured last February.
He claimed that Kiev was violating the International Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) with a variety of substances supported by Western countries, including the psychochemical warfare agent BZ, as well as hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen chloride.
Kirillov’s violent death was a shock to Russia’s military and political establishment. A minute’s silence was observed in the Russian parliament, the Duma.
Deputy speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper house, Konstantin Kosachev, said his death was an “irreparable loss,” while retired general and lawmaker Andrei Gurulyov said Kirillov’s killing would not go unanswered.
Gurulyov said he was responsible for obtaining weapons that could only be seen on the battlefield and that he clearly understood the “criminal activities of the US and its satellites.”
His death is also seen by Kremlin supporters not only as a blow, but also as evidence of Ukraine’s ability to target high-ranking officials in Moscow.
Some commentators even pointed the finger at the British or the Americans. According to Russian war correspondent Sasha Kots, this proves that enemy agents are operating “in our rear” and spying on people.
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