Ukraine’s spies target Russian figures in increasingly audacious attacks happymamay

It is striking how complex the process is. Ukrainian sources told the BBC that the explosives were hidden in an electric motorcycle and were detonated by remote control.

The victim, Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, is believed to be the highest-ranking military official to be killed outside a combat zone since the start of the full-scale invasion.

His assassination shocked Russia’s military and political establishment. Sources from the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) explained that they were behind this.

There were many Ukrainian operations targeting Russian forces on Ukrainian territory.

But the fact that Ukrainian intelligence was able to target the head of the Russian army’s radiation protection and biological and chemical protection forces outside his home in southeast Moscow raises questions about Russian security and how far Ukraine’s capabilities could extend.

Choosing Scooter to attack was a smart move. It is abandoned everywhere on the streets of Moscow and attracts little attention.

But since they detonated the device at just the right moment, in this case as General Kirillov was leaving his apartment building alongside his aide, the perpetrators must have been under some kind of visual surveillance – either watching on camera or watching in person.

It is believed that his killing was not the first of its kind by the Ukrainian security service on the streets of Russia’s largest cities, so previous attacks on politicians and military officials in Russia could shed some light on how such operations are carried out.

It was April 2023, the prominent war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was meeting with his supporters in a cafe in St. Petersburg As part of a “Creative Evening”.

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

Ms Trepova later went on to claim during her trial that she knew nothing about the explosives inside the bust. She admitted that she was against the war in Ukraine, but was told, she said, that inside the bust was a microphone.

The court sentenced her to 27 years in prison.

Whatever their prior knowledge, there is no doubt that Ukrainian security services are using deception to lure local Russians who may be sympathetic to the Ukraine cause.

Actions can range from organizing sabotage to preparing a bomb in this case.

The Ukrainian security service is not above sending a hitman to achieve its goal, and this is perhaps the most notorious means of espionage assassination.

A year ago, a former pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker, Ilya Kiva, was shot dead in a village outside Moscow. The killer managed to enter unnoticed into the grounds of a hotel and shot Mr Kiva twice as he was walking in the garden.

Once again, Ukraine did not make any official statements, but sources in the Ukrainian security service said they were.

Just five days ago, prominent Russian rocket scientist Mikhail Chatsky was shot dead in a forest outside Moscow. In this case, the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Service was arrested, although there is no confirmation.

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

The fact that Kirillov was killed days after Chatsky shows how deeply Ukraine’s spies were able to penetrate Russia.

It was not only politicians or Russians linked to the military who were attacked.

In August 2022, Daria Dugina was killed in a car bomb attack, in an apparent message to her father, Alexander Dugin, who is seen as the Russian ideologue justifying Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.

According to the Russian investigation, two Ukrainian citizens participated in the attack – a clear example of Ukraine sending agents deep into Russia to “eliminate” their target.

Natalia Vovk, 43 years old, crossed into Russia from occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. She later teamed up with another Ukrainian woman who rented a garage where they assembled the bomb. The two Ukrainians, it was alleged during the trial, managed to flee Russia one day before Dugina was killed.

All of these attacks demonstrate the wide range of methods available to Ukrainian special services, but some experts believe that Kiev may not have been the one to assassinate Lt. General Kirillov at all.

This could be the result of an internal power struggle among the Russian military or the Kremlin’s attempt to remove a key witness to war crimes, says Yuri Karin, a military observer based in Kiev.

If it is about the Ukrainian security service, he says, the message is clear. “Even inside the Moscow Ring Road, Russian generals cannot feel safe.”