Update(1405): Russia has blasted the West for staying quiet after Ukraine openly boasted of assassinating a top Russian general earlier in the day, identified as Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was killed when a scooter bomb detonated remotely upon his leaving his apartment in the early morning hours:
Russia on Tuesday criticised Ukraine’s allies over what it called insufficient reactions to the assassination in Moscow of the Russian army’s chemical weapons chief, an attack claimed by Kyiv.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the West in a Telegram post of “approval for war crimes by fighters of the Kyiv regime” and said “all those who welcome terrorist attacks or deliberately hush them up are accomplices“.
This also brings up questions of past reports exposing a CIA program to train and assist Ukraine’s special forces and intelligence in sabotage and cross-border targeting…
Last year, The Washington Post had a whole big report about how Ukraine’s intelligence services were capable of carrying out assassinations inside Russia thanks to support they received from the CIA since 2014 https://t.co/XSXEaDqUfK pic.twitter.com/dNwBkVQYVR
— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) December 17, 2024
American media consumers might have a short memory span, but the Russians sure don’t. The Kremlin is now calling Ukraine’s NATO backers ‘accomplices’ in a clear escalation of rhetoric.
President Putin had just this week warned that the West is going ‘beyond’ Russia’s red line in its support to Ukraine, and said things are escalating at a dangerous pace. As for this latest ‘scooter bomb’ assassination, the Kremlin is likely to immediately suspect that CIA and Western intelligence services may have assisted.
The bomb which was detonated remotely had a large blast radius (see video below) and was clearly a very sophisticated device, given the smallness of what was a literal children’s scooter apparently used in the plot.
* * *
In another scary escalation which will lead to unpredictable consequences, a top military general and head of the Russian military’s chemical weapons forces was killed in Moscow in a targeted blast which Ukraine quickly owned up to. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov has been confirmed killed in an assassination bombing, and is the most senior Russian official killed since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.
According to emerging details confirmed in state TASS news agency, citing Russia’s emergency services, a bomb was hidden in an electric scooter parked outside Gen. Kirillov’s apartment. As he and his assistant walked by, the explosive was remotely detonated. The assistant was also immediately killed. Footage showed a large blast outside the residential building.
The 54-year old oversaw Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection troops – and Kiev and Western sources have accused him of ordering deployment of chemical weapons in the conflict.
An official Kremlin statement reads: “On the morning of December 17, an explosive device planted in a scooter went off near a residential building entrance on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow, the investigation showed. Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his aide were killed in the explosion.”
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is openly boasting to being behind the killing and Ukrainian sources have acknowledged this to American media.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and an entirely legitimate target, as he issued orders to use prohibited chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops,” an SBU source told ABC. “Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”
“By order of Kirillov, more than 4,800 cases of the enemy’s use of chemical munitions have been recorded since the beginning of the full-scale war,” the SBU added, but only cited that grenades equipped with substances like CS and other riot control type irritants have been used.
Video of the bombing has also been released by the SBU. Clearly the hit was carefully planned an choreographed as the attack seems to have been filmed with a ground view from a nearby vehicle.
‼️ BREAKING: New video showing the moment General Kirillov and his assistant Polikarpov were blown up
The footage clearly shows that it was the scooter that exploded.
The explosion killed Igor Kirillov, head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the… pic.twitter.com/3i8P59uPW0
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 17, 2024
“The footage shows Gen. Kirillov and his aide exiting a building, with the infamous scooter standing nearby,” an unnamed Ukrainian source has described. “The moment they enter the blast zone of the explosive device, the scooter is blown into the air, delivering a ‘verdict’ to the war criminal.”
Moscow is vowing that Ukraine will pay dearly, with Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and former president Dmitry Medvedev warning in a fresh statement in the aftermath of Kirillov’s death, “Attempts to intimidate our nation, stop the Russian offensive or sow fear are doomed. Certain punishment awaits Banderite Nazis, including the top military and political leaders of a crumbling country.”
Medvedev characterized the assassination it as done in desperation given that Kiev forces are steadily being beaten back on the Donbas. Indeed such cross-border acts have only gotten more brazen of late.
Russian Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense chief, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, was killed by an IED outside a residential building in Moscow, but who was he, and why was he a target for assassination? pic.twitter.com/EQp4vlchb3
— RT (@RT_com) December 17, 2024
Medvedev continued: “This terrorist attack demonstrates the agony of the Banderite regime, which is struggling to justify its shaky existence in the eyes of its Western patrons and prolong the deadly hostilities while delivering cowardly attacks on civilians in cities and towns.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/17/2024 – 14:05
