'Ukraine Has Humiliated Putin On His Doorstep'
- 19.12.2024, 9:13
The assassination of General Kirillov came at a difficult time for Moscow.
The murder of Russian Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov was intended to sow fear and hatred, writes The Telegraph correspondent James Kilner in an article titled "Ukraine has humiliated Putin on his doorstep at a precarious time."
The article draws attention to the publication of the Baza Telegram channel, linked to the Russian secret services, which admitted that the attack "under the nose of the Kremlin" was a disgrace.
The propaganda channel Rybar with 1.3 million subscribers wrote that the murder hurt the "morale", including that of the Russian occupiers, and complained that "there is no time to relax at all." Other so-called war correspondents began to question the competence of the Russian secret services.
As stated in the article, Kirillov was hated in the West for spreading the Kremlin lie that the US was running “chemical weapons” factories in Ukraine and Georgia. The Telegraph notes that in the last couple of months, high-ranking commanders of the Air Force, Navy and Ground Forces have been liquidated in Russia.
“In many ways, Kirillov’s murder looks like the culmination of a colourful Ukrainian assassination program — a well-oiled process that has killed high-ranking propagandists, officials who collaborated with Russia, journalists, scientists and military personnel in Russia and in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The killers’ favourite tools were bombs hidden under cars, in scooters and vanity busts, and some targets were shot,” the publication writes.
After Kirillov’s liquidation, Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev demanded immediate revenge. Analysts say the killings are unnerving for the Kremlin and the "notoriously paranoid" Putin and his cronies will be watching their backs, the article said.
The Telegraph also quoted Nigel Gould Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, as saying Ukraine's ability to target a serving general in Moscow would deeply puzzle Russian elites. He also said it was the most significant assassination of its kind to date.