By assassinating Russia’s top military officials, Ukraine is trying to demoralise the people on which the war depends, security analyst Mark Galeotti has said.
Kyiv’s security service is believed to be behind this morning’s bomb attack in Moscow that claimed the life of Igor Kirillov, Russia’s head of nuclear, biological and chemical defence forces.
Mr Galeotti, a senior associate fellow at defence thinktank RUSI and the author of We Need To Talk About Putin, wrote in The Spectator that these kinds of assassinations have been “ramping up” and the reasons behind them are multidimensional.
“In part, this is revenge for Russia’s own campaign of drone, missile and hacking attacks on Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure. However, there is also a political dimension to this,” he said.
“By going after commanders – especially those accused of war crimes – and facilitators of the Kremlin’s rule in the occupied territories, Kyiv is seeking to demoralise those on whom the war directly depends.”
He added: “Attacks on Russian oil facilities, hacking government websites to show anti-war propaganda, diplomatic efforts to isolate Russia and close sanctions loopholes, assassination campaigns – all these are best considered simply as other fronts in a war being fought all the way across society.”