MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A top Russian lieutenant general is dead, targeted in an assassination in Moscow. The general was in charge of chemical and biological warfare in Russia's war on Ukraine, and sources in Ukraine's security service have confirmed to NPR that it was behind the assassination. NPR's Joanna Kakissis joins us from Kyiv to tell us more. Good morning, Joanna.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: Could you just start by telling us who this Russian general was and why was he killed?
KAKISSIS: So his name was Igor Kirillov. And since 2017, he had been in charge of the Russian military's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces. Kirillov and one of his aides were killed after some kind of explosive device planted in a scooter was set off. The killing happened near the entrance of a residential building in southeastern Moscow, where Kirillov apparently lived. A video of the scene showed the effects of the bombing - the scorched buildings, shattered windows. And Kirillov was killed a day after Ukraine's security service leveled criminal charges against him for using banned chemical weapons in this war. He was already under sanctions from several countries, including the U.K. and Canada, regarding Moscow's war on Ukraine. And he is the highest-profile Russian military official who has been killed outside of the front line since the 2022 invasion.
MARTIN: What's Ukraine saying about this general's assassination?
KAKISSIS: So publicly, Ukrainian officials have not said anything. However, a source within Ukraine's security service did confirm to NPR that it was behind the assassination. The source spoke under condition of anonymity because this person is not allowed to release the information. Ukraine's security service recently published an investigation saying that chemical weapons were used at least 5,000 times in this war. A Ukrainian colonel, Artem Vlasiuk, told reporters last week about the effect that this has had on soldiers.
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ARTEM VLASIUK: (Speaking in Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: He's saying that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, more than 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers with symptoms of chemical poisoning have been sent to medical facilities. And at least one of those soldiers has died.
MARTIN: And what about Russia? How's Russia responded?
KAKISSIS: So Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia's security council, he praised the assassinated general, and he called this assassination a terrorist attack. He insisted that Ukraine is doing whatever it can to justify its failures on the front line to what he called its Western masters, and that Ukraine is prolonging this war. He also said that Ukraine will pay in full for this killing, vowing retribution against Ukrainian military and political leaders. This comes at a critical point in the war, Michel, when Donald Trump is about to take office in the United States and is telling both sides not to escalate. But Russia is advancing on the Ukrainian front line every day, taking a little bit more Ukrainian land, and Ukraine says its allies are not doing enough to help.
MARTIN: So before we let you go, Joanna, tell us a little bit more about what this says about Ukraine's tactics. I mean, I think it's pretty clear Ukraine is outnumbered when it comes to troops and ammunition. So what does this say about Ukraine's sort of tactical focus, I guess, at this point?
KAKISSIS: Well, you know, as I said earlier, you know, Igor Kirillov is the most prominent assassination outside of the front line. And Ukraine has also used assassination in other instances. Let me just list a couple of them, like the daughter of a Russian nationalist who was killed in a car bombing in 2022 and a military blogger who was killed last spring.
MARTIN: So I guess unconventional methods are their...
KAKISSIS: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...Course now. Yeah. That is NPR's Joanna Kakissis in Kyiv. Joanna, thank you.
KAKISSIS: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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