Ukraine’s spies are targeting Russian personalities with increasingly bold attacks

It is striking how complex the operation was. Explosives were hidden in an electric scooter and detonated by remote control, Ukrainian sources told the BBC.

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

His assassination shocked Russia’s military and political establishment. Sources from the Ukrainian security service SBU let it be known that they were behind it.

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

But the fact that Ukrainian intelligence can target the head of Russia’s radiation, biological and chemical defense forces outside his home in southeast Moscow raises questions about Russian security and how far Ukraine’s capabilities can reach .

Choosing a scooter for the attack was a smart move. They lie abandoned all over Moscow’s streets and attract little attention.

But since they detonated the device at exactly the right moment, in this case as General Kirillov left his apartment building with his aide-de-camp, the perpetrators must have had some sort of visual surveillance – either through camera surveillance or through personal observation.

It is believed that his murder was not the first committed by the SBU on the streets of Russia’s largest cities. Previous attacks on politicians and military personnel in Russia may therefore shed light on how such operations were carried out.

It was this prominent war blogger in April 2023 Vladlen Tatarsky met with supporters 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 put the gift back in the box, it exploded, killing him and injuring many of the others in the room.

Ms. Trepova later claimed in her trial that she knew nothing about the explosives in the bust. She admitted that she was against the war in Ukraine, but was told that there was a microphone in the bust.

The court sentenced her to 27 years in prison.

Whatever she knew in advance, there is little doubt that the Ukrainian security services are using deception to lure local Russians who may be sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause.

The acts can range from organizing sabotage to detonating a bomb.

The SBU does not shy away from sending a hit man to achieve its goal, perhaps the most notorious espionage killing method.

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

Again, Ukraine made no official statements, but sources in the SBU said they had.

Just five days ago, a leading Russian rocket scientist, Mikhail Shatsky, was shot dead in a forest outside Moscow. In this case, the murder was attributed to Ukrainian military intelligence, although there was no confirmation of this.

Schatsky 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’s assassination occurred just days after Shatsky’s assassination shows how deeply Ukrainian spies have penetrated Russia.

It’s not just politicians or military-connected Russians who are under attack.

In August 2022, Darya Dugina was murdered in a car bomb attack, apparently in a message to her father Aleksander Dugin, who is considered a 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 deep into Russia to “eliminate” its target.

Natalia Vovk, 43, entered Russia from occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. She later teamed up with another Ukrainian who rented a garage where they assembled the bomb. As was alleged in the trial, both Ukrainians managed to escape from Russia the day before Dugina’s murder.

All of these attacks demonstrate the wide range of methods available to Ukrainian intelligence services, but some experts believe it may not have been Kiev that assassinated Lt. General Kirillov.

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

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