Russia-Ukraine war updates: General Igor Kirillov killed in Moscow blast

Thank you for joining our live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.

You can read more about the killing of Igor Kirillov in Moscow today here.

And here’s is our report on the North Korean soldiers killed while fighting alongside Russian troops against Ukrainian forces.

And there’s plenty more content about the war here.

We’ll be closing this live page soon, so let’s remind you the most significant developments of the day:

• A top general in charge of Russian nuclear protection forces has been killed along with an aide by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter in Moscow, according to Russia’s investigative committee.
• A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) says the agency claims responsibility for the killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov. Ukraine has yet to officially comment.
• Kirillov was the head of the country’s radiological, chemical and biological defence, responsible for protection against threats from nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
• The European Commission says it is not involved in talks to extend a contract to keep Russian gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine. The contract is due to expire at the end of this month.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has met Ukrainian President Volodomy Zelenskyy and said Poland will do “everything in its power” to make Ukraine’s NATO membership a real possibility.
• Zelenskyy has said the question of deployment of foreign peacekeeping troops in Ukraine could be raised at a meeting of the leaders of Germany, France, Poland and NATO in Brussels on Wednesday.

The defence alliance has reportedly taken over the coordination of Western military aid to Ukraine from the US in a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against President-elect and NATO sceptic Donald Trump.

The planned step was confirmed by a source to Reuters. Coming after a delay of several months, the move gives NATO a more direct role in the war against Russia’s invasion while stopping well short of committing its own forces.

Diplomats, however, acknowledged that the handover to NATO may have a limited effect, given that the US under Trump could still deal a major setback to Ukraine by slashing its support.

The US is the alliance’s dominant power and provides the majority of arms to Ukraine. Trump, who will take office in January, has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine swiftly and has long criticised the scale of US financial and military aid to Ukraine.

The Russian parliament has increased punishment for armed rebellion to 15 from 12 years in prison, in response to a mutiny last year by the leader of the Wagner Group of mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to state media.

The TASS news agency reported that in serious cases where deaths result, for example, the penalty has been raised to life from 20 years.

In its session, the Duma also increased punishments for foreigners in Russia who support attacks on the security of the Russian Federation either financially or organisationally.

The law could apply to migrants from Central Asia who assisted Tajik attackers in their assault on a music venue in Moscow in March that killed more than 130 people.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says his country will do everything in its power to make Ukraine’s NATO membership a real possibility.

His comments came after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Lviv, western Ukraine.

Tusk 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.

The prime minister of Poland also said that a new border crossing would be opened between the two neighbouring countries in the coming days.

The Ukrainian president has said the question of deployment of foreign peacekeeping troops in his country could potentially be raised at a meeting of the leaders of Germany, France, Poland and NATO, among others, that will be in Brussels on Wednesday.

Speaking at joint press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the issue of strengthening Ukraine on the battlefield and geopolitically could also be discussed.

A spokesperson for the European Commission says the EU institution is not involved in talks to extend a contract to keep Russian gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine. The contract is due to expire at the end of this month.

“The Commission has no interest in the continuation of Russian gas transit via Ukraine,” the spokesperson said in emailed responses to questions, according to Reuters.

“The Commission does not support any discussions on the contract extension nor other solutions to maintain transit flows and has not been involved in any kind of negotiations on this.”

On Monday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine was willing to devise a deal enabling gas to transit through its territory to Western Europe but ruled out any extension of an existing deal with Russia.

“To this effect, if the European Commission officially approaches Ukraine about the transit of any gas other than Russian, we naturally will discuss it and are ready to reach an appropriate agreement,” Shmyhal said.

“I stressed that Ukraine’s agreement with Russia on gas transit comes to an end on January 1, 2025, and will not be extended.”

Shmyhal said much had already been done in recent years with EU countries “to secure reliable gas supplies and prevent the use of any type of energy as a weapon”.

Two Tu-22M3 strategic bombers made a scheduled flight over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, Russia’s Defence Ministry has said, according to reports in news agencies.

Tu-22M3s are long-range supersonic missile carrier bombers designed to destroy sea- and ground-based targets with guided missiles and aerial bombs.

Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia has frequently used Tu-22M3s to attack Ukraine. Earlier this year, Ukrainian officials said they had shot down a Tu-22M3 aircraft.

Russia’s air force has 57 Tu-22M3s, according to the 2024 Military Balance report by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

It is an unprecedented case. No such high-ranking military official has been assassinated since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict.

We have had another reaction come in.

A member of the State Duma’s committee on defence said that after the murder of Kirillov, parliamentarians would consider the issue of protecting high-ranking military officials, as well as scientists.

Spilled oil has washed up along “tens of kilometres” of the Russian Black Sea coast after two tankers were badly damaged in a storm at the weekend.

Russian state media are now saying that a third vessel is also in trouble.

The Kerch Strait, which separates Russia’s Krasnodar region from the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is a key route for exports of Russian grain and fuel.

Security officials have uncovered 12 agents spying for Russia at sites where F-16 fighter jets and air defence systems are deployed, Ukraine’s SBU says.

The officials said on Telegram that they have detained “the biggest network of agents” in Ukraine’s north and south.

Russian forces have intensified their attacks on Ukrainian-held territory in Russia’s Kursk region, according to Ukrainian military officials.

“For the third day, the enemy is conducting intensive assaults in Kursk region,” Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said.

He added that Russia was “actively” using North Korean troops who were taking significant losses.

In August, Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Kursk, seizing settlements in its first operation in Russian territory since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

We have some comments from the UK government on the killing of Kirillov in the Moscow attack.

“We’re not going to mourn the death of an individual who’s propagated an illegal invasion and imposed suffering and death on the Ukrainian people,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman told reporters.

The UN humanitarian agency reports that nearly 12,000 residents who remain in the Ukrainian towns of Pokrovsk, Kurakhove and Chasiv Yar – located just a few kilometres from the front line – are facing drinking water and gas shortages in freezing winter conditions after local utility operators suspended services.

OCHA officials also called for “unimpeded access” to aid civilians in Ukraine as winter deepens.

A day before Kirillov’s killing, Ukrainian officials had charged him in absentia over “war crimes” related to his alleged role in the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.

“The official is responsible for the massive use of banned chemical weapons,” Ukraine’s Security Service said on Monday, alleging Russia had used chemical munitions at least 4,800 times since February 2022. Kirillov was mentioned in his post as head of the Russian military’s radiological, chemical and biological defence unit since 2017.

The UK and the US have also accused Russia of using the toxic agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Chloropicrin is an oily liquid with a pungent odour. It is a choking agent that was widely used during World War I as a form of tear gas. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons specifically prohibits its use.

The UK government in October sanctioned Kirillov and his unit “for helping deploy these barbaric weapons”.

Russia has said it no longer possesses a military chemical arsenal.

Let’s bring you up to speed with the most significant developments over the past few hours:

• A source in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) says the agency claims responsibility for the killing of Igor Kirillov, a senior Russian general who had been head of the Russian military’s Troops of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence since 2017.
• Authorities in Russia have opened an investigation into the bomb blast in southeastern Moscow that also killed an aide of Kirillov.
• Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Kirillov was a patriot who worked “fearlessly” for “the Motherland” while former President Dmitry Medvedev pledged “imminent revenge” on Ukraine.
• Russian legislators have approved legislation requiring the transfer of “foreign agents” funds to special accounts, a move that critics see as a further crackdown on independent voices in the country.
• The Ukrainian air force says it has downed 20 Russia-launched drones in an overnight attack.

We also now have some comments from Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.

In a post on X, the Ukrainian president appealed to allies to sanction vessels carrying illicit oil as he called an oil spillage caused by a Russian tanker in the Black Sea on Sunday an “environmental disaster”.

“But there are even larger and more dangerous Russian tankers operating in your seas. Stopping this fleet is not just about cutting off Russia’s war funding – it’s about protecting nature,” he said.

“I urge everyone to take even stronger action. Ensure these shadow tanker fleet and other Russian vessels, including those transporting weapons, can no longer operate in European waters,” Zelenskyy added.