Ukrainian spies are targeting Russian figures in increasingly daring attacks

Regardless of what he knew beforehand, there is no doubt that the Ukrainian security services were using the hoax to lure local Russians who might be sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause.

Actions can range from sabotage to, in this case, making a bomb.

The SBU is not above sending an assassin to achieve its goal, perhaps the most famous tool of spy assassination.

A year ago, pro-Russian former Ukrainian MP Ilya Kyva was shot dead in a village near Moscow. The killer managed to sneak into the hotel grounds and shot Mr Kyva twice as he walked in the park.

Again, Ukraine made no official announcement, but sources in the SBU said it was them.

Just five days ago, Russia’s leading rocket scientist, Mikhail Shatsky, was shot dead in a forest near Moscow. In this case, although there is no confirmation, the killing was attributed to the military intelligence service of Ukraine.

Shatsky was responsible for modernizing the Russian Kh-59 and Kh-69 cruise missiles that caused so much destruction and loss of life in Ukraine.

The fact that Kirillov’s murder happened a few days after Shatsky’s murder shows how deeply Ukrainian spies have penetrated Russia.

It’s not just politicians or Russians with ties to the military who are under attack.

In August 2022, Darya Dugina was killed in a car bomb attack in an apparent message to her father, Alexander Dugin, who was seen as a Russian ideologue justifying Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.