‘Legitimate act’: The Times article that led to Putin ally’s death threats against its editors

A leader in The London Times about the assassination of a Russian general has led to serious threats from a key Putin ally. This is the article that caused Dmitri Medvedev to describe Times editors as ‘key military targets’.

Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Defence Ministry's radiological, biological and chemical protection unit, was assassinated by Ukraine agents.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, a senior Russian general, was placed on the UK government’s sanctions list in October. He can now be taken off it. Kirillov and an assistant were killed in Moscow by an improvised explosive device on an electric scooter. Though no official confirmation will be forthcoming, sources within Ukraine’s security services claim responsibility. The assassination is a discriminate strike against an aggressor. It underlines the need for western governments, many in a state of flux, to give Ukraine all support it needs to fight a just war of self-defence.

Kirillov was head of Russia’s nuclear, chemical and biological forces. He would have been responsible for numerous documented chemical attacks on Ukrainian forces in the field. These included deployment of a toxic choking agent, chloropicrin. As well as being a war criminal, Kirillov was a liar in the service of barbarism. He served as a mouthpiece for Kremlin propaganda to the effect that the government in Kyiv is covertly planning chemical and nuclear attacks.

These fraudulent claims were designed to cover up the Putin regime’s violation of international norms. There was no chance Kirillov would face justice, and his targeted killing, harming no civilian bystanders, is eminently defensible. It will act as a warning and deterrent to other plenipotentiaries of Vladimir Putin’s regime that they cannot escape retribution for their crimes.

Former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (R), a key ally of Vladimir Putin, has threatened editors of The London Times over this article. Picture: AFP.

The Kirillov affair ought also to impress upon Ukraine’s allies the determination of the country’s government, people and armed forces to carry on the fight. This is especially needed when the cast of western policy is in doubt. No one, probably including the president-elect, yet knows how the incoming administration of Donald Trump will handle the Ukraine war. And the weakness of government in France and collapse of the governing coalition in Germany mean that the path of European policy too is for the moment obscure.

There should be no doubting what is required: solidarity with Kyiv, whose fight against Russian invasion matters for regional stability and the security of Nato member states. President Zelensky has wisely hastened to cement an understanding with President Trump. European governments should likewise diplomatically impress upon the new administration that Kyiv’s fight has global consequences.

If Ukraine is pressured into a peace settlement in which it cedes large parts of its territory in the interests of a cessation of hostilities, it will merely embolden Mr Putin and autocracies in China, Iran and North Korea in their own irredentist and terrorist campaigns. The Biden administration has been lax in matching rhetorical support for Kyiv with military resources. Its agreement to use long-range missiles to strike military targets deep in Russia has perhaps come too late, and remains hedged with pedantic classifications of what is a legitimate target and what is not.

This is futile and counter-productive. Ukraine is fighting for its survival as a sovereign state. Mr Putin will not desist till he is certain of defeat, whereupon he will evacuate his forces as swiftly and ignominiously as he lately did from Syria.

Likewise, Sir Keir Starmer has been too prone to defer to the whims of the Biden administration sooner than support Kyiv on his own terms. The prime minister, in Estonia for a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force, should use the opportunity to step up multilateral aid to Ukraine. And European governments need to look at the wider context too. Mr Trump is not wrong to insist that Nato member states increase the proportion of national income spent on defence. To skimp on security is the falsest of economies. If Ukraine is not allowed and enabled to prevail, then the security of free nations everywhere is imperilled. It must be given the means to do so.