Ukrainian Intelligence Kills Senior Russian General in Moscow Bombing

 

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was the head of Russia's Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces

by Dave DeCamp December 17, 2024 at 1:01 pm ET 

CategoriesNewsTagsRussia, Ukraine

A senior Russian general was killed by a bomb blast in Moscow on Tuesday in a targeted killing Ukrainian sources say was carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was the head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces and was killed alongside his assistant, Igor Kirill, outside of a residential building. Russian investigators say an explosive device was planted on a nearby scooter.

The scene of an explosion in which Russian Gen. Igor Kirillov, in charge of nuclear protection forces, and his assistant were killed, in Moscow, Russia December 17, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

An SBU source told BBC that Kirillov was a “legitimate target,” saying he was responsible for war crimes and chemical weapons attacks, allegations Russia denies. The Russian military says the position Kirillov served in is responsible for protecting Russian forces from nuclear, chemical, and biological attacks.

The British government expressed support for the assassination. “We’re not going to mourn the death of an individual who’s propagated an illegal invasion and imposed suffering and death on the Ukrainian people,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Russian officials are vowing a response to the assassination and plan to raise the issue at the UN Security Council. “Those responsible for this crime must be duly punished and be unequivocally condemned by the international community,” said Dmitry Polyansky, a Russian representative to the UN.

Last year, The Washington Post published a report that credited the SBU and Ukraine’s military intelligence’s ability to carry out targeted killings inside Russia with the support the intelligence services had received from the CIA since 2014.

The Post report pointed to the August 2022 assassination of Darya Dugina, daughter of prominent Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, and said her killing and other similar operations “involved elite teams of Ukrainian operatives drawn from directorates that were formed, trained, and equipped in close partnership with the CIA.”

The CIA spent tens of millions of dollars on the effort and helped form a new unit of the SBU known as the “Fifth Directorate” that was created specifically to develop groups “capable of operating behind front lines and working as covert groups.”

The report also detailed how the CIA helped build up Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as the GUR, which one former US intelligence official referred to as “our little baby.”

https://news.antiwar.com/2024/12/17/ukrainian-intelligence-kills-senior-russian-general-in-moscow-bombing/