Wednesday Briefing

Igor Kirillov, a general, and an aide were killed by a bomb on a Moscow street yesterday.Credit…Yuri Kochetkov/EPA, via Shutterstock

Ukraine said it assassinated a Russian general in Moscow

A Russian general was killed yesterday by a bomb on a Moscow street. Ukraine claimed responsibility for what appears to be one of the most brazen assassinations since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly three years ago.

The general, Igor Kirillov, 54, died along with an aide after an explosive device planted in a scooter was detonated yesterday morning, Russian authorities said. Kirillov was the head of Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defense forces. Earlier this week, Kyiv had blamed him for the “massive use of banned chemical weapons” in Ukraine.

Ukraine has increasingly carried out deadly covert actions. Last month, Ukraine took credit for a car bombing that killed a senior Russian commander in Crimea. But while other Russian generals have died during the war, Kirillov is the highest-ranking military official to have been killed inside Russia.

A senior American official said the U.S. was not informed about the assassination ahead of time and warned that the killing might be counterproductive by inciting a reaction from Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

North Korea: The U.S. has seen “indications” that the North Korean forces that have been sent to Russia to help in the war in Ukraine have suffered their first casualties.

Related: With Donald Trump poised to take office, the era of U.S. military support for Ukraine is coming to an end.