Ukraine’s Security Service Linked to Bomb Blast Killing Top Russian General: Report

Ukraine’s Security Service: The blast killed Russian chief of chemical weapons Igor Kirillov on Tuesday; the Associated Press reported citing an agency official that it was behind the Ukraine security service.

His death comes shortly after the Ukrainian security service SBU launched a criminal inquiry against him. Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, 54 years old, is the chief of nuclear, biological, and chemical protection within the Russian military; he was killed by a bomb hidden underneath a scooter parked just outside his home. He was heading to his office at the moment.

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Reportedly, an assistant to Kirillov also sustained injuries and perished in the blast. The senior general imposed sanctions from several nations, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, on him due to his actions during the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine. And on Monday, the Bureau, SBU, opened a criminal case against him, as it accused him of using order on prohite chemicals.

An anonymous SBU official quoted by AP, described Kirillov as accused of being a "war criminal and an entirely legitimate target" and said that the agency was behind the attack.

Since the massive invasion of February 2022, the Ukrainian secret service agency has logged 4,800 occasions of chemical weapons use by Russia during the war.

In May this year, the US State Department confirmed that it had documented instances when chloropicrin had been used against Ukrainian forces, a poison gas first used in World War I.

The country dismissed such a claim and said it had not used any chemical weapon in Ukraine. They rather pointed fingers at Kyiv for using poisonous agents against its troops in a real-time battle.

One of the most famous officials to make such allegations against Ukraine, Kirillov was appointed chief of these weapons in 2017.

He frequently convened sessions to charge the Ukrainian military with using poisonous substances, at times even implicating them in intended radioactive attack plans on Russia. These allegations were dismissed as 'propaganda' by both Ukraine and its Western allies.

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Kirillov was killed as a result of a remotely detonated bomb, as reported by the AP quoting Russian sources.

Meanwhile, Russia's top investigative agency stated that it is looking into the death of the senior general as a case of terrorism.

Dmitry Medvedev, vice chairman of the Security Council of Russia under President Vladimir Putin, said that this was an attack initiated by Kyiv to draw attention away from its own military deficiencies. He promised that this would result in the "senior military-political leadership of Ukraine" facing inevitable payback.

Last year, Russia and Ukraine were almost constantly clashing in the course of the war, and the attacks had made further inroads into the Donetsk region. The brave unyielding Ukrainians are calling nearer toward the Western NATO nations while their allies continue to lend them support in their war against Russia.

In this regard, Moscow has also reaffirmed its earlier promises to refrain from conceding. Earlier on December 9, an explosive charge placed under a car in the territory of Russia-occupied Donetsk was reportedly intended for Sergei Yevsyukov, a former head of the Olenivka Prison where tens of Ukrainian prisoners, captured and convicted for alleged crimes against the Russian state, died in July 2022 after missile attacks.

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