DISINFO: Kyiv killed General Kirillov for exposing the West's role behind Ukraine's biolabs
SUMMARY
The assassination of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia's Troops of Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense, is linked to his uncovering of US and Ukrainian joint research on biological weapons. Kirillov had exposed the West's role in biolabs found throughout Ukraine, which made him a target. He had revealed the extent to which Ukraine has been involved in illegal US chemical and biological research.
RESPONSE
This is an attempt to exploit the killing of Russian top official Igor Kirillov in Moscow on 17 December 2024 to promote a long-discredited disinformation narrative about Western biolaboratories in Ukraine, used as a justification for Russia’s brutal invasion of its neighbour “on defensive grounds”.
Kirillov was under US and British sanctions for his role in Russia’s alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine’s frontlines. Ukrainian authorities charged Kirillov in absentia for these actions, which might be a more probable reason as to why Ukraine’s intelligence services went after him.
Claims about US military biolaboratories are part of a years-long disinformation campaign and have been debunked over and over again. Specific allegations about the presence of these facilities in Ukraine have been refuted by multiple experts, including by the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu and by Russian biologists who examined Moscow’s “proof”.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that US military biolabs are up to resume work in Ukraine, that Ukraine prepares a provocation to accuse Russia of using toxic substances, that the Pentagon develops biological weapons in more than 470 biolabs around the world, that Kazakhstan agreed to host 30 American biolabs relocated from Ukraine, that the US is developing biological weapons aimed at certain ethnic groups, or that the US is using biolabs around the world to create epidemics at will.