Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who was head of Russia’s chemical, biological, and nuclear protection forces

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

Monday’s Coverage: Kyiv Destroys Fuel Train and Hits Russia’s National Guard

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1028 GMT:

The moment of the explosion killing Russia’s Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov in Moscow this morning:

Archive footage is circulating of the general, who was in charge of Russia’s chemical, biological, and radioactive protection forces, pushing disinformation.

Kirillov claims in the footage that Kyiv blew up the Nova Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine in June 2023 to spread “combat mosquitoes” bred in US laboratories.

UPDATE 1014 GMT:

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces claim they have killed 50 North Korean soldiers and wounded 47 in Russia’s Kursk region over the past three days.

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” (see 0829 GMT).

UPDATE 1008 GMT:

At least four civilians were killed and at least six injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

Two men, aged 53 and 64, were slain in Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine. One person was killed in the neighboring Donetsk region, and one in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

Air defenses downed 20 of 31 attack drones launched by Russia overnight. Another 10 were lost to electronic counter-measures, and one was still flying.

UPDATE 0937 GMT:

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former President and current Deputy Chairman of the State Security Council, has responded to Ukraine’s killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov.

Medvedev proclaimed that the Ukrainian leadership will face imminent revenge, blustering, “Realizing the inevitability of its military defeat, it launches cowardly and despicable strikes in peaceful cities.”

UPDATE 0934 GMT:

The US has imposed new sanctions on North Korea and Russia over Pyongyang’s financial and military support to Moscow and the North Korean ballistic missile program.

The additions to the blacklist include Russian oil shipping companies and North Korean banks, generals, and officials.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry has sanctioned another 11 individuals and 15 entities over the North Korea-Russia cooperation.

Among those sanctioned are high-ranking North Korean military officers deployed to Russia, a senior missile engineer in the North Korean army, and the elite unit Storm Corps and its commander.

On Tuesday, the UK sanctioned 20 ships carrying Russian oil.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

As Putin’s oil revenues continue to fuel the fires of his illegal war, Ukrainian families are enduring cold, dark nights, often without heating, light or electricity, targeted by Russia’s relentless missile attacks.

These sanctions will add further pressure to Putin’s stalling war economy.

UPDATE 0829 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has again challenged Russia over Moscow’s reliance on North Korean troops in its 33 1/2-month invasion.

Even after years of war, when we thought the Russians could not get any more cynical, we see something even worse.

Russia not only sends the North Korean troops to storm Ukrainian positions, but also tries to conceal losses of these people.

The Ukrainian military said on Monday that at least 30 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded in Russia’s Kursk region, part of which has been held by Ukraine since a cross-border incursion on August 6.

Zelensky commented:

And now, after first combats with our warriors, Russians are trying… to literally burn the faces of North Korean soldiers killed in battle.

This is a demonstration of disrespect, which is currently prevalent in Russia, a disrespect to everything human.

Ukrainian, South Korean, and US officials say North Korea has deployed around 11,000 troops in Russia. Most are serving alongside Russian units in Kursk.

UPDATE 0814 GMT:

A Ukrainian operation killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s radiation, chemical, and biological defense troops (see Original Entry), says an official in Ukraine’s State security service SBU.

The official confirmed that Kirillov was slain by an improvised explosive device attached to an electric scooter.

He told Ukrainian outlets Kyiv Independent and RBC and France’s AFP, “The liquidation of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ radiation, chemical and biological defence troops is a special operation by the SBU.”

UPDATE 0805 GMT:

Donald Trump has again railed about the last month’s lifting of the US ban on Ukraine’s long-range strikes inside Russia.

Asked if he might reverse the Biden Administration’s decision, Trump responded, “I might. I think it was a very stupid thing to do.”

The White House noted that the permission for Ukraine to use US-supplied ATACMS missiles was made after months of deliberations. National security spokesperson John Kirby, said: “All I can assure you is that in the conversations we’ve had with them since the election, and we’ve had at various levels, we have articulated to them the logic behind it, the thinking behind it, why we were doing it.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: A Russian general was killed in an explosion in Moscow on Tuesday morning.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defense Forces, was leaving a residential block when a device hidden in an electric scooter was detonated, confirmed Russia’s Investigative Committee.

Kirillov’s assistant was also killed. Photographs showed the two bodies lying in blood-stained snow next to the wrecked entrance of the building. Several cars, and the first four floors of the apartment block were damaged.

The site of the blast is about 4 miles southeast of the Kremlin. Russian State media said the bomb contained the equivalent of 300 grams of high explosive.

Kirillov was sanctioned by the UK in October for his oversight of the use of chemical weapons and his role as a “significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation”.

On Monday, a Ukrainian prosecutor charged Kirillov in absentia with using banned chemical weapons.