In the process, the Ukrainian security services claimed responsibility for the assassination of this senior officer. And this marks a change, Dominique Trinquand, former head of the French military mission to the United Nations, immediately tells us. In this event, “there are two things that are striking“, says the expert: “First, saying that in Russia, we are not safe from attacks by the Ukrainian services. Since the Ukrainian services, and this is something of a first, immediately claimed responsibility for this attack. There have been several attacks previously, some time ago, and the Ukrainian services have never claimed responsibility for them. Then, second point, we can say that Russia is really at war, including in the heart of the country“.
The question of the use of chemical weapons by the Russians
Targeting Commander Kirillov may then be a way of bringing to the forefront the issue of the use of chemical weapons by the Russians in Ukraine. The Russian general was indeed responsible for the use of chemical weapons, and he was also convicted last October in the United Kingdom for “deploying barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine”. For our expert, the elimination of Kirillov may therefore represent the Ukrainians’ desire to show that chemical attacks – “which we talk very little about“, underlines our interlocutor – is taking place. This targeted assassination”is perhaps a way of recalling the way in which the Russians use weapons which are totally prohibited, to obtain territorial gains for their benefit“, he explains.
Dominique Trinquand believes that the death of Igor Kirillov will not create a particular precedent, given that other attacks of this type have already taken place since the start of the war in Ukraine. He also does not imagine that a specific change will take place, but according to him, this assassination reflects a certain reality that Ukrainian officials are trying to counter: “On the ground, things are going pretty bad for the Ukrainian army. So Ukraine uses what we call asymmetric warfare, in order to circumvent what is, for it, a bit of a setback“This asymmetrical war is carried out by two different means, continues the former military leader: deep strikes and targeted attacks, like the one suffered by Kirillov.”From Russia’s side, this approach can be seen as a warning that danger is everywhere. ‘Don’t imagine that the war will be confined to the front. It takes place elsewhere. And I think that’s the reality of things.”concludes Dominique Trinquand.
