Unusually, Kyiv claimed the operation that killed Lt-Gen Igor Kirillov and his assistant through a remote-controlled detonation as he left his apartment on Tuesday morning. “Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target,” a Ukrainian official said of the man who oversaw Russia’s chemical weapons, which Ukraine – and the UK – alleges have been used illegally during the war.
Kirillov was also a high-ranking military official directly implicated in the war in Ukraine, in common with Stanislav Rzhitsky, a submarine commander gunned down in a Krasnodar park. A spate of attacks in recent months, including another car bomb that killed naval commander, Valery Trankovsky, suggests the campaign is ramping up.
Ukraine’s SBU agency, which claimed the hit, has much in common with Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, he said, as they are “adventurous and ruthless”, with the resources and the determination to strike anywhere in Russia – and almost anyone.
From left to right, Daria Dugina, a Russian journalist, military blogger Maxim Fomin aka Vladlen Tatarsky, and nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin. All three have all been targeted since Russia invaded Ukraine (Photos: Reuters)“The FSB is very good at investigating what already happened, but not very good at collecting intelligence about what’s coming,” said Soldatov, adding that failures are rarely punished.
John Foreman, a British former defence official once based in Moscow, also suggested the assassination exposed weakness in the domestic intelligence agency.
The campaign may aim to demonstrate to Russian officials far from the front line that they are not safe, Foreman said.
The headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor agency to the KGB, in central Moscow (Photo: AFP)
“I think one of the aims, beside targeting Kirillov himself, is to remind senior Russian politicians and military officers that there are no ‘no go’ areas, that Ukrainian memories are long, and that there are potentially very serious consequences to planning, directing and conducting Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.”
“Ukrainian intelligence has been clear: those senior Russian officials with Ukrainian blood on their hands will not be left to live out their lives without fear of being held to account,” he said. “I expect it continues even if Ukraine suffers more notable battlefield setbacks.”
Russian general accused of war crimes in Ukraine killed in Moscow explosion
Read MoreBut Russia will have to respond to the highest-profile killing yet, Soldatov believes, having failed to find an answer to Ukraine’s covert operations.
Foreman believes any steps are unlikely to resolve deep-rooted issues. “Expect a flurry of tokenistic security measures and arrests to show action, but the poor state of the FSB will remain,” he said.
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