The damaged building near the explosion that killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, Moscow, Russia, December 17, 2024

EA on Pat Kenny Show: Ukraine Assassinates a Top Russian General

Tuesday’s Coverage: Kyiv Kills Russian General in Moscow Explosion

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1224 GMT:

The “confession” video of the Uzbek man detained by Russia over Tuesday’s assassination of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov.

UPDATE 1217 GMT:

The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution addressing human rights violations in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

For the first time, the resolution referred to Russian actions as a “war of aggression”. It condemns torture of POWs, illegal detention of civilians, deportation of children, and discrimination against residents of occupied territories.

The Assembly voted 81-14, with 80 abstentions.

UPDATE 1131 GMT:

Ukraine human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets says 177 executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian troops have been documented.

Lubinets said 109 of the killings happened this year.

“We see that the situation has drastically worsened,” he noted.

UPDATE 1117 GMT:

Footage from residents shows the aftermath of an oil spill from two Russian tankers sinking off the coast of occupied Crimea.

On Sunday, the 55-year-old cargo ship Volgoneft-212 broke in half on Sunday after it was hit by a large wave off Crimea’s east coast, five miles from the Kerch Strait. The 55-year-old tanker was carrying 4,300 tons of mazut, a low-grade heavy fuel oil.

Shortly afterwards, another cargo transporter, the Volgoneft-239, sank with 4 tons of fuel oil.

The oil spillage covers around 40 km (25 miles) along the coastline.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for international sanctions on Russia over the sinkings, citing the irresponsible use of aging tankers as part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” to circumvent international restrictions on Russian transport of oil.

UPDATE 0836 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses have blocked all 81 drones launched by Russia overnight.

Thirty-one drones were downed and 50 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

“No hits were recorded, and there were no reports of damage or casualties,” the Ukraine Air Force said.

UPDATE 0826 GMT:

Safeguarding support for Kyiv as Donald Trump returns to the White House in January, NATO has taken over from the US in coordination of military aid.

The Nato Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU) is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden. It will have a total strength of around 700 personnel, including troops stationed at NATO’s military headquarters in Belgium and logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.

US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, said:

The work of NSATU…is designed to place Ukraine in a position of strength, which puts NATO in a position of strength to keep safe and prosperous its one billion people in both Europe and North America.

This is a good day for Ukraine and a good day for Nato.

UPDATE 0819 GMT:

A “senior US military official” says “several hundred” North Korean troops of “all ranks” have been killed or injured fighting in the Kursk region in western Russia.

The official said the casualties “include everything from … light wounds up to being KIA [killed in action]”.

These are not battle-hardened troops. They haven’t been in combat before….[That is] why they have been suffering the casualties that they have at the hands of the Ukrainians.”

Ukrainian Special Operations Forces claimed on Tuesday that they had killed 50 North Korean soldiers and wounded 47 in the previous three days in Kursk, part of which Ukraine has held since a cross-border incursion on August 6.

On Monday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia, seeking to conceal the losses, was “trying…to literally burn the faces of North Korean soldiers killed in battle”.

Ukraine’s State security service SBU is publishing extracts from intercepted Russian calls, claiming they confirm extensive North Korean casualties.

In one call a nurse in a hospital in Moscow region tells her husband, a Russian soldier: “Yesterday there was a train that brought a hundred people. Today it was another 120, that’s already over 200. And how many more are there? God knows.”

In another call, she says areas of hospitals are for North Korean soldiers while wounded Russian troops are being treated in worse conditions: “Are they elite, or what, these Koreans? We are freeing up certain wards for them.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia’s authorities have detained an Uzbek national, claiming he placed the improvised explosive device which killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov on Tuesday.

The State security agency FSB said the 29-year-old was recruited by Ukrainian special services and promised $100,000 and travel to the European Union.

He was arrested in the village of Chernoye in the Balashikha district of Moscow.

Kirillov, the head of the chemical, biological, and radiological weapons unit, and his assistant were killed as they left a building in a residential area in southeast Moscow, around 7 km (4.3 miles) from the Kremlin.

A Ukrainian official briefed national and international media that Kyiv’s State security service SBU organized the explosion.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, visiting a center for people with disabilities and speaking with rehabilitating troops, made no comment on the attack.

Meeting Poland’s Prime Minister in Kyiv, he thanked Donald Tusk for supporting Ukraine’s NATO application and the resistance against Russia’s 33 1/2-month invasion.