Ukraine was “absolutely behind” the assassination of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, retired CIA intelligence official Larry Johnson told Sputnik.
The head of Russia's Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops was “exposing the West's role in these biolabs throughout Ukraine,” he pointed out.
“There's a lot of money involved with that. Whenever you get a lot of money like that involved, you can guarantee that there's going to be organized criminal activity, and so I think he hurt some major financial interests and this may have well been part of payback,” said the former US intelligence official.
Kiev undeniably consulted with Western intelligence, when plotting the hit on Kirillov, Johnson maintains. He added that it was “a sophisticated operation, and it had a level of support.”
The top Russian general had regularly accused Ukraine and its US bosses of operating biolabs and orchestrating false flags using toxic substances, presenting solid evidence to substantiate the claims.
However, this “incredibly incriminating” information has received virtually no coverage in the West, the former intelligence official emphasized.
He added that never in his almost 40 years of professional experience in the world of intelligence had he seen “anything comparable to the number of biological labs that were set up and operating in Ukraine with the direct participation of the United States.”
“This was a massive strategic effort. And you got to step back and say, well, what was the purpose? Why?” he pointed out.
General Kirillov had “systematically and fearlessly exposed the heinous crimes of the Anglo-Saxons and NATO provocations,” noted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday.
Russia will raise the issue of the murder of its chemical defense chief Igor Kirillov during a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine on December 20, said deputy envoy to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy.