Moscow: Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, has claimed responsibility for killing Lt. General Igor Kirillov, head of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, in a bombing Tuesday in Moscow. Kirillov, 54, was killed alongside his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov when a bomb planted on a scooter exploded outside an apartment block.
An official with the SBU said the agency was behind the attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information, described Kirillov as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.” On Monday, Kirillov was charged in absentia by the SBU for "ordering the use of banned chemical weapons against Ukraine’s Defense Forces."
Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out other high-profile attacks throughout the nearly three-year-old war. Kyiv has hinted at its involvement but Ukrainian officials have stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility.
Recent Assassinations and Attacks:
December 17, 2024: Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter detonated outside an apartment building. Ukraine’s SBU security service called Kirillov "a legitimate target," accusing him of war crimes. In October 2024, the UK sanctioned Kirillov for overseeing the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.
December 12, 2024: Ukrainian media reported that Mikhail Shatsky, a software developer responsible for modernising Russian cruise missiles, was shot dead outside Moscow.
December 9, 2024: Sergei Yevsyukov, head of a prison in Russian-occupied Olenivka, was killed in a car bomb. The prison was associated with the deaths of over 50 Ukrainian POWs in a controversial explosion in July 2022.
November 2024: Ukraine claimed responsibility for a car bombing in Moscow-annexed Crimea, which killed high-ranking naval officer Valery Trankovsky.
October 2024: Russian media reported the mysterious killing of Nikita Klenkov, an officer who fought in Ukraine. Klenkov was killed in his car outside Moscow while on leave.
April 2024: Vasily Prozorov, a former Ukrainian security agent who defected to Moscow, survived a bomb detonation in his car in a residential area of Moscow.
December 2023: Pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Illya Kyva, a former Ukrainian MP who defected to Russia, was shot dead in a Moscow suburb. Ukraine claimed responsibility for the killing.
May 2023: Prominent pro-Kremlin writer and nationalist Zakhar Prilepin was seriously injured in a car bomb near Nizhny Novgorod. Prilepin, a known supporter of Russia's 2022 offensive, was labelled a "real war criminal" by Ukraine.
April 2023: Pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin) was killed in Saint Petersburg when a statuette handed to him exploded at a café. Russia accused Daria Trepova, a 26-year-old woman allegedly acting on Kyiv's orders, and sentenced her to 27 years in prison, the harshest sentence for a woman in Russian history.
August 2022: The first high-profile assassination that shocked Russia was the killing of nationalist Darya Dugina, daughter of Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin. Dugina, 29, was killed when a car bomb detonated outside Moscow. Many believe her father was the intended target. Russia blamed Ukraine, though Kyiv neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
