Punishing Mass Murderers

"Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,"

"Investigative actions and operational search activities are being carried out aimed at establishing all the circumstances of the crime."

"[The explosive device - which killed Kirillov and his aide in Ryazansky Avenue - had an explosive force equivalent to 300g (0.7lb) of TNT]."

Russia's Investigative Committee (SK)

 

"[The killing of Igor Kirillov was a] shocking [development]"

"It's one thing reading about it in the news, it feels far, but when it happens next door, that's completely different and frightening."

"Until now, [the war] felt as if it was happening a long way off – now someone is dead, here, you can feel the consequences."

"Unfortunately, I don't think things will calm down any time soon."

Liza, Moscow neighbour to Kirillov

Lt.Gen.Igor Kirillov, chief, Russian nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces Photo: BBC

There are ways and means. And Ukraine has been extremely adept at exploiting those ways and means. On Tuesday a senior Russian general met his death while carrying out his normal activities for the day. It appears that General Kirillov was known to use an electric scooter to get about, unlike most who prefer motorized vehicles to ensconce themselves within, with personal military chauffeurs. Could be he was a secret environmentalist, aside from being a public mass murderer. That little factoid was all that was needed to arm a plan for his execution.

The scooter, parked outside  his Moscow apartment building, had carried a hidden bomb in a mission of assassination which was remotely detonated. A man responsible for the deaths of millions of civilians in Syria and Ukraine met his own death by the Grim Reaper with a little help from those who felt his activities and decisions in Ukraine called out for a solution to his living presence as an ongoing threat, one whose time had come. 

 

A day earlier, Ukraine's security service had registered criminal charges against the man. Death was his just due.

He had left his home as usual on his way to his office, as chief of the Russian military's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces. The attack took another with it, his assistant. Under sanctions from several countries, the U.K. and Canada among them, the 54-year-old's activities in the conflict that the Kremlin forced upon Ukraine saw Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) open a criminal investigation accusing him of orchestrating use of banned chemical weapons.

A SBU official confirmed that his agency had directed the attack, speaking on condition of anonymity, describing Kirillov as a "war criminal and an entirely legitimate target". Over 4,800 occasions when chemical weapons were utilized on the battlefield since Moscow's full-scale invasion commenced in February of 2022 on Ukraine, had been identified by the SBU. 

The use of chloropicrin, a poison gas deployed during the First World War against Ukrainian troops had been recorded in May by the U.S. State Department, even as Russia denied the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. In turn the Kremlin took to accusing Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat. General Kirillov was one of the most high-profile figures to level those accusations since his 2017 assignment to his position in the conflict with Ukraine.

Numerous briefings had been called by General Kirillov, accusing the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning attacks with radioactive substances. Tuesday's attack bomb had been triggered remotely, according to news reports out of Russia. Shattered windows and scorched brickwork appear in images from the scene on Russian news reports.

 

Pictures from the scene in south-eastern Moscow showed the badly damaged entrance to a building with scorch marks on the walls and a number of windows blown out.  Reuters

The SBU reported that Russian forces had made use of drones to drop chemical weapons on Ukrainian soldiers. Over 2,000 Ukrainian service members were treated in hospital for chemical poisoning over the war's course, with three people having died as a result of the poisoning, according to Ukrainian Col. Artem Vlasiuk -- which the Kremlin  characterizes as "baseless" accusations.

Investigators from Russia's top state investigative agency are looking into the details of Kirillov's death as a case of terrorism, leading Moscow officials to vow that Ukraine will face punishment for the deadly plan. Deputy head of Russia's Security Council chaired by President Putin -- Dmitry Medvedev -- spoke of the attack as an attempt by Kyiv to distract public attention from its military failures, vowing that "senior military-political leadership will face inevitable retribution". 

That is to say, unless Ukraine, with its endless string of brilliant diversions doesn't out-manoeuvre the Kremlin there, too. Since the invasion, a number of prominent Russian figures have been dispatched to Hell in targeted attacks believed to have been carried out by Ukraine.

 

The explosive was reportedly hidden inside of an electric scooter  EPA/Shutterstock

 

"Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, since he gave orders to use prohibited chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military."

"Such an inglorious end awaits everyone who kills Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable."

Anonymous SBU source

 

"[Kirillov had] significantly increased his media engagement [to issue repeated, baseless claims that the U.S. government had been involved in creating both the mpox virus and COVID-19, and that the U.S.] is developing biological weapons able to selectively target ethnic groups."

"The U.S. Government is concerned that this false narrative may be a prelude for a false-flag operation, where Russia itself uses biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and then attempts to blame it on Ukraine and/or the United States."

U.S. State Department, March 2023