Ukraine’s military intelligence has said it is behind the killing of a senior Russian general in Moscow - the latest in a string of assassinations claimed by Kyiv’s security forces.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of nuclear, chemical and biological protection of Russian troops, was killed outside an apartment building in Moscow along with his assistant, when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.
Sources say the Ukrainian security service, known as the SBU, was responsible. The killing came just a day after the SBU officially accused Kirillov of war crimes and issued a warrant in absentia for him over alleged use of banned chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline.
The intelligence network, which often draws comparisons to Israel’s prized Mossad spy agency, has reportedly carried out dozens of assassinations, though they are never officially claimed.
The killing of Kirillov, however, amounts to its most high-profile attack. His murder is likely to prompt the Russian authorities to review security protocols for the army’s top brass and to find a way to avenge his killing.
Below, The Independent looks at the SBU’s alleged assassinations over the years.
Valery Trankovsky - November 2024
On 13 November, this year, Valery Trankovsky, the chief of staff of the 41st Missile Brigade of the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet, was sitting in his car in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol when a bomb attached to the bottom of the car detonated beneath him.
The man’s legs were reportedly blown off and he later died from blood loss. A source in Ukraine’s security services told a Ukrainian outlet that they were responsible for the attack.
The official said Trankovsky was “a war criminal” who had ordered missile strikes from the Black Sea at civilian targets in Ukraine.
Vladlen Tatarsky - April 2023
On the evening of 2 April, 2023, Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky - real name Maxim Fomin - walked into a cafe in St Petersburg to deliver a talk to a 100-member audience.
The Ukraine-born blogger, a hardline supporter of the invasion of Ukraine, was among the most followed military commentators on the messenger platform Telegram.
He was also part of the pro-Kremlin forces that invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014 after being jailed for robbing a bank, as well as having close ties to the Wagner group, a mercenary outfit that was fighting in Ukraine at the time.
As he began speaking, a bust made in his image exploded, killing him immediately and wounding more than two dozen others.
Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old woman from St Petersburg, who gave Tatarsky the statuette, later claimed to be following instructions from a man in Ukraine. In January this year, Trepova was jailed for 27 years. She faced terrorism, explosives trafficking and document forgery charges, admitted guilt only to the latter.
SBU senior officer Lt Gen Vasyl Malyuk told a Ukrainian national broadcaster almost a year after the killing, that operatives had duped an intermediary, a young woman, into handing the statuette to Tatarsky.
He said the Tatarsky was targeted for his military service fighting against Ukraine and his calls for the elimination of Ukrainians.
Stanislav Rzhitsky - July 2023
In the early hours of 10 July 2023, Russian ex-submarine officer Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42 began his morning run in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.
It was a familiar route, one he regularly published on the running app Strava.
The officer was suspected of involvement in a submarine-launched cruise missile strike in July 2022 that killed at least 23 people, including a four-year-old girl in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia.
As he ran through a deserted city park at around six in the morning, someone suddenly appeared and fired seven shots at him.
These details were shared by Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, though they did not claim responsibility or elaborate on how they acquired the details.
Darya Dugina - August 2022
On a late August weekend in Moscow, a car carrying a Russian state journalist, who was the daughter of an ultranationalist commentator, blew up.
Darya Dugina, daughter of Alexander Dugin, who is thought to have inspired Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine in 2014, was immediately killed.
Her father was nearby. It was alleged that they had switched cars unexpectedly.
Ukraine denies involvement in this attack, though US officials have previously said they believe Kyiv to be responsible.
Who else?
Lt Gen Vasyl Malyuk claimed in his interview that they had conducted “very many” assassinations. He said they prioritised pro-Russian conspirators and war criminals.
But he was quick to add that they would never confirm attacks. He only suggested involvement in the Tatarsky killing.
Understanding how many people the SBU have targeted is, therefore, impossible.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian sources claimed that the military intelligence agency (HUR) had killed Mikhail Shatsky, a Russian expert involved in modernising missiles launched against Ukraine. The scientist was shot dead near Moscow and a body was found in a forest.
