Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv claims assassination of Putin’s nuclear general in Moscow scooter bomb attack
Igor Kirillov was charged by Kyiv yesterday over alleged use of banned chemical weapons in war
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Your support makes all the difference.Ukrainian security services have killed a senior Russian general in charge of nuclear protection forces in Moscow today, intelligence sources in Kyiv have claimed.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt after a bomb hidden in an electric scooter detonated.
In a statement to the Financial Times, an intelligence source described Kirillov as a “completely legitimate target”.
He was sanctioned by Britain in October for his battlefield involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, and his assistant were killed,” the investigative committee said.
Photographs posted on Russian Telegram channels showed a shattered entrance to a building littered with rubble and two bodies lying in the blood-stained snow.
His death comes a day after Ukrainian prosecutors charged him with the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine war.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said the Ukrainian leadership faces imminent revenge for the “cowardly and despicable strikes”, the RIA state news agency reported.
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Poland will do everything in its power to make Ukraine's Nato membership a real possibility, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said after meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in Lviv.
He added that Western countries must do everything to ensure that Ukraine emerges from the war with Russia without losses, with respect for its territory and borders, and with security for the future.
Ukraine’s scooter bomb assassination could change the war… but not for the reasons you might think
Ukraine’s scooter bomb killing could alter the course of the war
The audacious killing of Putin’s chemical weapons chief by Ukraine’s special forces – in the heart of Moscow – is a blow to the president’s personal prestige, designed to alter the roadmap to peace talks, says Mark Almond
Russia is not willing to freeze the war, says Moscow’s UN representative
Russia is not willing to freeze the war in Ukraine despite promises from US president-elect Donald Trump to end the fighting, Moscow’s ambassador to the United Nations has claimed.
“No schemes involving a freeze of the conflict will suit Russia,” said Vasily Nebenzya during a UN security council meeting on Monday.
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Russia passes law against ‘foreign agents'
Russia has approved legislation which tightens restrictions on income received by people in Moscow designated as “foreign agents”.
Under Russian law, any person or organisation receiving support from outside Russia must register as a “foreign agent”, allowing Moscow to discredit foreign actors.
The new bill, which requires “foreign agents” to transfer all income from the sale or rental of property and vehicles to special rouble accounts, has passed its third and final reading in the Russian Duma.
They will also be required to transfer any earnings from intellectual activity, including works of science, literature and art, performances and broadcasting, to those accounts, Reuters news agency reported.
Individuals will only regain access to the funds once they are removed from the Justice Ministry’s foreign agents register.
A total of 895 individuals are listed as foreign agents.
Legislation to allow multiple citizenship passes first reading in Kyiv
The Ukrainian parliament has supported legislation allowing multiple citizenship, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said according to The Kyiv Independent.
Current legislation only allows Ukrainians to hold single citizenship. President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted the new bill in August, stressing its importance as part of his internal resilience plan in November.
The bill has passed its first reading with 247 lawmakers in favour. It still must pass a second reading and be signed by the president before it becomes law.
It is seen as part of Ukraine’s effort to strengthen ties with Ukrainians living abroad, with Mr Zelensky saying it will allow ethnic Ukrainians born abroad to obtain citizenship.
Report: Nuclear bunker sales increase, despite expert warnings they aren’t going to provide protection
When Bernard Jones Jr. and his wife, Doris, built their dream home, they didn’t hold back. A grotto swimming pool with a waterfall for hot summer days. A home theater for cozy winter nights. A fruit orchard to harvest in fall. And a vast underground bunker in case disaster strikes.
“The world’s not becoming a safer place,” he said. “We wanted to be prepared.”
Under a nondescript metal hatch near the private basketball court, there’s a hidden staircase that leads down into rooms with beds for about 25 people, bathrooms and two kitchens, all backed by a self-sufficient energy source.
With water, electricity, clean air and food, they felt ready for any disaster, even a nuclear blast, at their bucolic home in California’s Inland Empire.
Read the full piece:
Nuclear bunker sales increase, despite expert warnings they aren’t going to provide protection
Global security leaders are warning nuclear threats are growing as weapons spending surged to $91.4 billion last year
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