By Guardian-Tom Ambrose/Vicky Graham - Wed 18 Dec 2024

The 29-year-old had been recruited by Ukrainian special services, Moscow says.

The day so far

• Russia has detained an Uzbek citizen who investigators believe placed the bomb which killed Lt Gen Igor Kirillov on the instructions of Ukraine’s security service, the country’s investigative committee has said. The 29-year-old had been recruited by Ukrainian special services and promised $100,000 and travel to the European Union, the news agency Tass reported, citing the country’s domestic spy agency, the FSB. The man was arrested in the village of Chernoye in the Balashikha district of Moscow, the news agency Ria reported, citing interior ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk.
• The Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Russia will raise the assassination in Moscow of top Russian general Igor Kirillov by Ukraine at the UN security council on 20 December. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said everyone involved in the killing would be found and punished.
• Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Ukraine had repeatedly dropped white phosphorus munitions from drones in September. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said law enforcement agencies had evidence of the use of such munitions by Ukraine, but she did not provide details of the evidence.
• Ukraine on Wednesday dismissed a Russian allegation that its drones repeatedly dropped white phosphorus in September as “false and nonsensical”, saying that Kyiv was fully compliant with its international arms control obligations. “We are confident that by making such false accusations, Moscow seeks to shift blame for its own actions and deceive foreign audiences,” foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told Reuters in a written statement.
• The Ukrainian air force said on Wednesday that Russia launched 81 drones to attack Ukraine overnight of which 30 “imitator drones” did not reach their targets and 51 were shot down.
• Russian chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov said on Wednesday that arms control was now a thing of the past due to the lack of trust between Russia and the West. Gerasimov said Russia had seen increased activity by the US-led Nato military alliance near Russia’s borders.
• Russian forces took control of the villages of Trudove and Stari Terny in eastern Ukraine, the Russian state news agency RIA reported on Wednesday, citing the defence ministry. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.
• North Korean forces have suffered “several hundred” casualties fighting against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, according to a senior US military official. Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s war effort, including to the Kursk border region, where Ukrainian forces seized territory earlier this year. “Several hundred casualties is our latest estimate that the DPRK has suffered,” the official said on condition of anonymity, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.
• Slovak prime minister Robert Fico will meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday to discuss continuation of gas transit through Ukraine, Fico said on Wednesday. Fico told a parliamentary committee that while the Ukrainian government rejected extending a transit contract with Russia’s Gazprom, alternative solutions were possible to keep the transit next year.
• Donald Trump’s incoming Ukraine envoy, retired Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, will travel to Kyiv and several other European capitals in early January on a fact-finding trip, according to two sources with knowledge of planning. They said he would visit senior leaders in Kyiv, and his team was working to set up meetings with leaders in other European capitals, such as Rome and Paris, though plans could change.
• Nato has taken over as planned from the US in coordinating western military aid to Ukraine, a source said on Tuesday, in a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against Donald Trump. Nato’s military headquarters, Shape, confirmed its Ukraine mission was assuming responsibilities from the US and international organisations.
• The headquarters of Nato’s new Ukraine mission, dubbed Nato Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden. It takes over from the US-led Ramstein group. NSATU is set to have a total strength of about 700 personnel, including troops stationed at Shape in Belgium and logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.
• Britain on Tuesday sanctioned 20 ships it said had been carrying illicit Russian oil. “As [Russian president Vladimir] 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,” said Keir Starmer, the British prime minister.

17m ago14.08 GMT

Two Russian Tu-95 strategic bomber planes carried out patrol flights over neutral waters of the Bering and Chukchi Seas, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the defence ministry.

Russia, since the start of the war in Ukraine, has stepped up the frequency of such flights, as well as other military exercises, in order to project a show of strength beyond its borders.

The flights were carried out in strict accordance with international rules, the ministry said.

50m ago13.36 GMT

1h ago12.58 GMT

Russia is ready to consider any proposals from the United States to bring mutual relations back to “normality”, Russian state agency TASS cited Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Wednesday.
Moscow has not yet received a response to its request asking Washington to approve Russia’s new ambassador to the United States, Ryabkov added.

Finland is considering pulling out of an international agreement banning anti-personnel landmines because of Russia’s use of such weapons in Ukraine, Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen said.

Leaving the 1997 Ottawa Treaty prohibiting the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel landmines would require majority backing by Finland’s parliament.

Quitting the agreement would enable Finland’s military to start stockpiling mines again for the first time since the Nordic country, which is now a member of both NATO and the European Union, signed the treaty in 2012.

Hakkanen told Reuters:

I have commissioned an evaluation of whether the use of anti-personnel mines is a strengthening factor for Finland’s defence and whether we should have the ability to use them. And this is from a defensive premise.

2h ago12.22 GMT

The day so far

• Russia has detained an Uzbek citizen who investigators believe placed the bomb which killed Lt Gen Igor Kirillov on the instructions of Ukraine’s security service, the country’s investigative committee has said. The 29-year-old had been recruited by Ukrainian special services and promised $100,000 and travel to the European Union, the news agency Tass reported, citing the country’s domestic spy agency, the FSB. The man was arrested in the village of Chernoye in the Balashikha district of Moscow, the news agency Ria reported, citing interior ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk.
• The Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Russia will raise the assassination in Moscow of top Russian general Igor Kirillov by Ukraine at the UN security council on 20 December. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said everyone involved in the killing would be found and punished.
• Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Ukraine had repeatedly dropped white phosphorus munitions from drones in September. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said law enforcement agencies had evidence of the use of such munitions by Ukraine, but she did not provide details of the evidence.
• Ukraine on Wednesday dismissed a Russian allegation that its drones repeatedly dropped white phosphorus in September as “false and nonsensical”, saying that Kyiv was fully compliant with its international arms control obligations. “We are confident that by making such false accusations, Moscow seeks to shift blame for its own actions and deceive foreign audiences,” foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told Reuters in a written statement.
• The Ukrainian air force said on Wednesday that Russia launched 81 drones to attack Ukraine overnight of which 30 “imitator drones” did not reach their targets and 51 were shot down.
• Russian chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov said on Wednesday that arms control was now a thing of the past due to the lack of trust between Russia and the West. Gerasimov said Russia had seen increased activity by the US-led Nato military alliance near Russia’s borders.
• Russian forces took control of the villages of Trudove and Stari Terny in eastern Ukraine, the Russian state news agency RIA reported on Wednesday, citing the defence ministry. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.
• North Korean forces have suffered “several hundred” casualties fighting against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, according to a senior US military official. Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s war effort, including to the Kursk border region, where Ukrainian forces seized territory earlier this year. “Several hundred casualties is our latest estimate that the DPRK has suffered,” the official said on condition of anonymity, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.
• Slovak prime minister Robert Fico will meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday to discuss continuation of gas transit through Ukraine, Fico said on Wednesday. Fico told a parliamentary committee that while the Ukrainian government rejected extending a transit contract with Russia’s Gazprom, alternative solutions were possible to keep the transit next year.
• Donald Trump’s incoming Ukraine envoy, retired Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, will travel to Kyiv and several other European capitals in early January on a fact-finding trip, according to two sources with knowledge of planning. They said he would visit senior leaders in Kyiv, and his team was working to set up meetings with leaders in other European capitals, such as Rome and Paris, though plans could change.
• Nato has taken over as planned from the US in coordinating western military aid to Ukraine, a source said on Tuesday, in a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against Donald Trump. Nato’s military headquarters, Shape, confirmed its Ukraine mission was assuming responsibilities from the US and international organisations.
• The headquarters of Nato’s new Ukraine mission, dubbed Nato Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden. It takes over from the US-led Ramstein group. NSATU is set to have a total strength of about 700 personnel, including troops stationed at Shape in Belgium and logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.
• Britain on Tuesday sanctioned 20 ships it said had been carrying illicit Russian oil. “As [Russian president Vladimir] 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,” said Keir Starmer, the British prime minister.

3h ago11.37 GMT

Dan Sabbagh

Gasping, choking. On Ukraine’s frontline, the country’s soldiers report what statistics show: a persistent use of chemical weapons, mostly teargas, whose deployment on the battlefield is illegal. The US and UK go further in their accusations and say Russia is using another toxic agent, chloropicrin, first employed to gruesome effect in the trenches of the first world war.

Behind the effort are the radiological, chemical and biological defence troops of the Russian ministry of defence, known as RKhBZ. The US and UK say they are a specialised unit, responsible in part for the use of chemicals on the battlefield, and their head was Igor Kirillov, killed in Moscow by a bomb hidden in a scooter, in an attack that was carried out by Kyiv.

Ukraine says 4,800 uses of chemical weapons by Russia have been documented since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, and more than 2,000 people hospitalised. Multiple media reports, citing soldiers’ testimony, report that small first-person view (FPV) drones are used to drop gas grenades on Ukrainian positions, choking unprotected soldiers or forcing them into the open so they can be picked off.

In May, the US said Russia was using teargas and other riot control agents on the battlefield – and also chloropicrin. Banned by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the battlefield, chloropicrin is a faint yellow liquid that, when released near human beings, causes choking, dizziness, intense eye pain, skin irritation, vomiting and, in the most severe cases, death.

The chemical weapon accusations against the general killed in Moscow

3h ago11.08 GMT

Ukraine dismisses 'false' Russian allegation of Kyiv's white phosphorus usage

Ukraine on Wednesday dismissed a Russian allegation that its drones repeatedly dropped white phosphorus in September as “false and nonsensical”, saying that Kyiv was fully compliant with its international arms control obligations.

“We are confident that by making such false accusations, Moscow seeks to shift blame for its own actions and deceive foreign audiences,” foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told Reuters in a written statement.

3h ago11.02 GMT

Russian chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov said on Wednesday that arms control was now a thing of the past due to the lack of trust between Russia and the West.

Gerasimov said Russia had seen increased activity by the US-led Nato military alliance near Russia’s borders.

He said that after Ukraine struck Russian territory with long-range missiles, the United States had become a direct participant of the conflict in Ukraine.

4h ago10.27 GMT

Russian forces took control of the villages of Trudove and Stari Terny in eastern Ukraine, the Russian state news agency RIA reported on Wednesday, citing the defence ministry.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.

4h ago10.02 GMT

Russia’s leadership is furious that one of their top commanders has been assassinated by Ukrainian spies. Yet their anger seems misplaced: the targeted killing of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov was not an unprovoked act, but a consequence of Russia’s ongoing offensive and Ukraine’s right to defend itself under international law.

The explosion that shook a quiet Moscow neighbourhood – eliminating the head of the Russian military’s chemical, biological and radiological weapons unit, known as RKhBZ – also revealed the unexpectedly formidable capabilities of Ukraine’s secret service (SBU). The general and his assistant are the most senior figures assassinated since Russia’s 2022 invasion. The pair were killed when a bomb, concealed in a parked scooter outside a Moscow residential building, was remotely detonated.

Lt Gen Kirillov must have known he was a marked man. The RKhBZ, which he commanded, are special forces who operate under conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination. The day before, the SBU charged the general in absentia, accusing him of the “mass use of banned chemical weapons”. Kyiv says over 2,000 of its troops have been hospitalised because of the use of choking agents, and three have died.

One of the most common justifications for targeted killings also comes from the UN charter, article 51 of which states: “Nothing in the present charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations”. States carrying out lethal force in the context of an armed conflict must also comply with international humanitarian law. The Russian general appears to have been a valid target and Ukraine is likely to have conformed to the laws of armed conflict, which stipulate that the force must be necessary, proportionate and limited to military personnel, with no civilian casualties.

The Guardian view on a Moscow assassination: Ukraine’s justified strike and Russia’s baseless outrageRead more

5h ago09.37 GMT

North Korean forces have suffered “several hundred” casualties fighting against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, according to a senior US military official.

Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s war effort, including to the Kursk border region, where Ukrainian forces seized territory earlier this year.

“Several hundred casualties is our latest estimate that the DPRK has suffered,” the official said on condition of anonymity, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.

This “would include everything from … light wounds up to being KIA (killed in action)”, the official said, with soldiers of “all ranks” among the casualties.

“These are not battle-hardened troops. They haven’t been in combat before,” the official said, adding that this was probably contributing to “why they have been suffering the casualties that they have at the hands of the Ukrainians”.

The official’s comments on casualties came after Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Russia has used North Korean troops at the heart of an “intensive offensive” in Kursk over several days.

‘Several hundred’ North Korean troops killed fighting Ukraine, says US officialRead more

5h ago09.09 GMT

Nimo Omer

For today’s Guardian newsletter, Nimo Omer spoke with the Guardian’s Russian affairs correspondent, Pjotr Sauer, about the significance of this attack and its potential ramifications:

Ukrainian officials say Kirillov, who had been the head of Russia’s nuclear protection forces since 2017, was targeted specifically because he presided over “the massive use of banned chemical weapons” against Ukraine’s military. According to the SBU, chemical weapons were used more than 4,800 times since the start of the war – and Ukraine placed the blame directly on Kirillov.

Kyiv says that Moscow’s use of such weapons has become “systemic”. The UK and US have also accused Russia of using banned chemical weapons on the battlefield; Washington sanctioned Russia for the use of chloropicrin, an agent notorious from the first world war, against Ukrainian troops; and the UK sanctioned Kirillov directly in October, stating that he was “responsible for helping deploy … inhumane chemical weapons” on the battlefields of Ukraine.

“There’s a second reason why Ukraine targeted him,” Pjotr adds: his media profile. Kirillov became known for his outrageous briefings that falsely accused Ukraine of various crimes including developing a “dirty” radioactive bomb. Some claims verged on the “completely ridiculous”, Pjotr says, such as when Kirillov said that Ukraine was working with the US to develop drones that could give malaria to Russian soldiers.

How significant is this assassination?

Less than a day before his killing, the SBU issued an arrest warrant for Kirillov for alleged war crimes. His death is a symbolic win for Kyiv as “it shows that Ukraine’s hand reaches very far and that they have men operating within Russia”, Pjotr says.

“This will send shock waves in the Russian military establishment. I spoke to a former defence official this morning who said that many were shaken within the defence ministry that such a senior official was killed in Moscow,” he adds. “Other officials will probably get around-the-clock security now because of this.”

It is not going to tip the scale of how the war is going – Russia is on the offensive and is making territorial gains. “But I think Ukraine is trying to show that everyone who is responsible for the war will eventually be punished one way or another, and if they aren’t able to prosecute them, they will find other ways to punish these men,” Pjotr says.

The news will lead to a morale boost in Kyiv and embarrass and anger Russian authorities, who are treating the killing as a terrorist attack.

How did Ukraine pull this off?

There are a number of different theories circulating as to how Kyiv was able to execute this plan.

“Ukraine could have had someone on the ground or the device could have been detonated from a distance. There is also a chance that Ukraine used Russian anti-Putin resistance fighters to do this,” Pjotr says.

Ukraine has already demonstrated that it has the ability to carry out extraterritorial killings. Last week, Kyiv claimed responsibility for killing a senior scientist who was working on weapons and rockets that Russia uses in its war in Ukraine.

And in 2022, Russia accused the Ukrainian special services of killing Darya Dugina, the daughter of ultranationalist Putin ally Alexander Dugin, in a car bomb in Moscow. Ukraine denied it carried out the attack.

Even though Russia knows that Ukraine is capable of such operations, it is clearly not able to prevent them, Pjotr says: “Ukraine is really sending a signal that they are not only going to kill generals and military figures on the battlefield, but they will also target those responsible for the war inside Russia.”

The response inside Russia

Russia said on Tuesday only that it had “opened a criminal case into the murder of two servicemen”. Russia’s RIA news agency reported that the former president Dmitry Medvedev, now a senior Russian security official, said Ukraine’s military and political leadership faced revenge.

The Kremlin has also not yet indicated how it will retaliate. “Russia has been doing its own hybrid campaign against the west,” Pjotr says. There was a foiled plot to assassinate the head of a German weapons manufacturing company and attempts at sabotaging key undersea cables. “I think that will continue and probably escalate after this,” he says.

Although there were reports that residents were frightened by the explosion, the incident will probably only “harden the mood in Moscow”, Pjotr adds, “with Russians demanding more rockets fired at Ukraine”.

Russian officials will use this attack to further justify their war in Ukraine and reject any calls for a ceasefire, which they have been doing anyway. “They will use this to rally the nation around the war and insist that they have to keep fighting for regime change and make other massive demands from Ukraine,” Pjotr says.

Wednesday briefing: The world waits after Ukraine assassinates top Putin general in MoscowRead moreShare6h ago08.41 GMT

Slovak prime minister Robert Fico will meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday to discuss continuation of gas transit through Ukraine, Fico said on Wednesday.

Fico told a parliamentary committee that while the Ukrainian government rejected extending a transit contract with Russia’s Gazprom, alternative solutions were possible to keep the transit next year.

Share6h ago08.23 GMT

The Ukrainian air force said on Wednesday that Russia launched 81 drones to attack Ukraine overnight of which 30 “imitator drones” did not reach their targets and 51 were shot down.

Share6h ago08.08 GMT

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Ukraine had repeatedly dropped white phosphorus munitions from drones in September.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said law enforcement agencies had evidence of the use of such munitions by Ukraine, but she did not provide details of the evidence.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine which has accused Russia of using phosphorus, Reuters reported.

Zakharova also said Russia will respond to a new set of European Union sanctions which Moscow considers a danger global energy security.

The European Union imposed a 15th package of sanctions against Russia on Monday, including tougher measures against Chinese entities and more vessels from Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet on Monday.

Share7h ago07.43 GMT

Russia to raise Ukraine's killing of top general in Moscow at UN meeting, Russian foreign ministry says

The Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Russia will raise the asssassination in Moscow of top Russian general Igor Kirillov by Ukraine at the UN security council on 20 December.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said everyone involved in the killing would be found and punished.

Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, who was the chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed in Moscow on Tuesday.

Share7h ago07.27 GMT

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to the Ukraine live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you all the latest developments throughout the day.

We start with news that Russia has detained an Uzbek citizen who investigators believe placed the bomb which killed Lt Gen Igor Kirillov on the instructions of Ukraine’s security service, the country’s investigative committee has said.

The 29-year-old had been recruited by Ukrainian special services and promised $100,000 and travel to the European Union, the news agency Tass reported, citing the country’s domestic spy agency, the FSB.

The man was arrested in the village of Chernoye in the Balashikha district of Moscow, the news agency Ria reported, citing interior ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk.

Kirillov, the head of the military’s chemical, biological and radiological weapons unit, was killed in an explosion along with his assistant as the two men left a building in a residential area in south-east Moscow on Tuesday.

A source in Ukraine’s SBU security service said Kyiv was behind the attack. Suspect in killing of Russian general detained in Moscow, authorities say

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