Ukraine spies target Russian figures in increasingly bold attacks

It’s amazing how elaborate the operation was. The explosives were hidden in an electric scooter and were detonated by remote control, Ukrainian sources told the BBC.

The victim, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, is believed to be the highest-ranking military officer killed outside the combat zone since the full-scale invasion began.

His murder has shocked Russia’s military and political establishment. Sources from the Ukrainian security service SBU made it known that they were behind this.

There have been numerous Ukrainian operations targeting Russian forces on Ukrainian territory.

But the fact that Ukrainian intelligence could target the head of the Russian military’s radiological, biological and chemical protection forces outside his home in southeast Moscow raises questions about Russian security and how far Ukraine’s capabilities can extend.

Choosing a scooter for the attack was a smart decision. They lie abandoned everywhere on the streets of Moscow and attract little attention.

But since they detonated the device at precisely the right moment, in this case when General Kirillov was leaving his apartment block together with his assistant, the perpetrators must have had some kind of visual surveillance, either monitoring via camera or watching him. in person.

His murder is not believed to have been the first committed by the SBU on the streets of Russia’s largest cities, so previous attacks on politicians and military officers in Russia may shed some light on how such operations have been carried out. .

It was in April 2023 when the prominent war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky met with his followers in a cafe in St. Petersburg. as part of a “creative evening”.

During the event at Street Food Bar No 1, Darya Trepova, who claimed to be an art student, presented him with a sculpture of a soldier’s head. Minutes later, as Tatarsky was returning the gift to the box, it exploded, killing him and injuring many of the others in the room.

Trepova later claimed at trial that she knew nothing about the explosives inside the bust. He admitted that he was against the war in Ukraine but, he said, he had been told that there was a microphone inside the bust.

The court sentenced her to 27 years in prison.

Regardless of what she knew beforehand, there is no doubt that the Ukrainian security services use deception to attract local Russians who may be sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause.

The acts can range from organizing sabotage to, in this case, preparing a bomb.

The SBU does not hesitate to send a hitman to achieve its objective, perhaps the most notorious means of assassination of spies.

A year ago, a former pro-Russian Ukrainian MP, Ilya Kyva, was shot dead in a village outside Moscow. The killer managed to slip unnoticed in the grounds of a hotel and shot Mr Kyva twice as he walked through a park.

Once again, Ukraine made no official statements, but SBU sources said it was them.

Just five days ago, a prominent Russian missile scientist, Mikhail Shatsky, was shot dead in a forest outside Moscow. In that case, the murder was attributed to Ukraine’s military intelligence service, although there was no confirmation.

Shatsky was responsible for modernizing the Russian Kh-59 and Kh-69 cruise missiles that have caused so much destruction and loss of life in Ukraine.

The fact that Kirillov’s murder took place a few days after Shatsky’s murder shows the extent to which Ukrainian spies have penetrated Russia.

It is not just politicians or Russians connected to the military who have been attacked.

In August 2022, Darya Dugina was killed in a car bomb attack, in an apparent message to her father, Aleksander Dugin, considered the Russian ideologue justifying Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.

According to the Russian investigation, two Ukrainian citizens were involved in the attack, an apparent example of Ukraine sending agents to Russia to “eliminate” its target.

Natalia Vovk, 43, had crossed into Russia from occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. He later partnered with another Ukrainian who rented a garage where they assembled the bomb. Both Ukrainians, as stated during the trial, had managed to escape from Russia a day before Dugina was killed.

All of these attacks show the wide range of methods available to the Ukrainian special services, but some experts believe that it might not be kyiv that murdered Lieutenant General Kirillov.

It could be the result of an internal power struggle within the Russian military or the Kremlin’s attempt to eliminate one of the key witnesses to war crimes, says Yuriy Karin, a kyiv-based military observer.

If it was the SBU, then the message is clear, he says. “Even inside the Moscow Ring Road, the Russian generals cannot feel safe.”