Lt General Igor Kirillov, the Russian general in charge of chemical, biological and nuclear troops, was the high-profile target of a Ukrainian assassination campaign inside Russia – which has been running since 2022.
The general and his assistant were blown up at the entrance of an upmarket apartment block in a suburb four miles from the Kremlin in Moscow.
About 300 grams of sophisticated explosive had been wired up to the seat of an e-scooter – and triggered remotely by a radio signal.
Less than 24 hours earlier Kyiv had announced that the general had been charged for the use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine – on some 4,600 instances. He had been a well-known propagandist on state television.
The targets of Ukraine’s assassinations seem carefully chosen
He had been sanctioned by a range of Nato allies, and recently was named by the UK for “the use of barbaric weapons” in October this year.
Within hours of the explosion Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) told western agencies that they had been involved. Back in March the head of the service, Lt General Vasyl Malyuk revealed to western media that Ukraine was pursuing a secretive assassination campaign against defectors and Ukrainians who were assisting Russia, including those who had sought shelter in Moscow.
Kirillov was known to be close to Vladimir Putin, who will undoubtedly seek revenge in a spectacular piece of propaganda theatre soon. There have been several reported attempts on the life of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky – the latest just a few weeks ago.
It’s not been a good fortnight for Putin
The targets of Ukraine’s assassinations seem carefully chosen. Just days ago the Ukraine Security Service claimed to have killed the architect of Russia’s next generation of cruise missiles, Dr Mikhail Shatsky. His body was found in woods near his home, again southeast of Moscow near where General Kirillov was blown up.
It’s not been a good fortnight for Putin and the Kremlin. He has lost his ally and client, Assad the bloody dictator of Syria. He needs to hang on tow his port on the Syrian coast, Tartous, and the airbase of Hmaimim. If he loses them, he loses other bases in the region such as Benghazi and Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
His ally Iran has suffered body blows. It has lost the supply routes to its client Hezbollah in Lebanon, and anyway the new milder leadership of the movement in Beirut ostentatiously refused to help save Assad – whom Hezbollah troops had propped up for so long.
Iran also lost a huge element of its missile sites and plants in the 100 aircraft raid by Israel at the end of October. The Russia air defence systems were ineffective – not one Israeli aircraft was downed. Significantly, one of the first bits of kit air freighted out of the airbase at Hmeimim in Syria was the S-400 air defence apparatus, before it could fall into hostile hands.
Robert Fox is defence editor
