Will THIS change the rules of the game?
Trump’s Ukraine envoy is going to Kyiv ….
NATO is moving to take over the movement of aid to the Ukraine with Trump becoming the US President….
Russian oil tankers keep getting damaged…..
An explosion in Moscow killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces, on Tuesday morning. A Ukrainian official said Kyiv’s intelligence service was responsible, calling Kirillov a “legitimate target” due to his role in ordering the use of banned chemical weapons on Ukraine amid Russia’s nearly three-year invasion.
The facts
- Kirillov is the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces.
- His killing was a “special operation” by Ukraine’s domestic security service, known as the SBU, said the Ukrainian official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
- Ukraine previously accused Kirillov of directing the use of banned chemical weapons by Russian forces against Ukraine’s military on the battlefield.
- In the past, Kirillov has relayed misinformation about the United States setting up biowarfare labs in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
He is the highest-ranking Russian military official to be killed outside the front lines since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Previously, the highest-ranking Russian death outside the battlefield was Capt. Valery Trankovsky, commander of the 41st brigade of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. He was killed in a car explosion in Sevastopol, in Crimea, in November. A Ukrainian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the security matters said at the time that the SBU was responsible.
The killing of Kirillov comes a week after the reported death, also in Moscow, of a top Russian cruise missile engineer who helped develop the missiles for use in the war in Ukraine….
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Donald Trump’s incoming Ukraine envoy, retired Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, will travel to Kyiv and several other European capitals in early January on a fact-finding trip, according to two sources with knowledge of planning. They said he would visit senior leaders in Kyiv, and his team was working to set up meetings with leaders in other European capitals, such as Rome and Paris, though plans could change.
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North Korean forces have taken “several hundred” casualties fighting against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, according to a senior US military official. This “would include everything from … light wounds up to being KIA [killed in action]”, the official said, with soldiers of “all ranks” among the casualties. “These are not battle-hardened troops. They haven’t been in combat before … [that is] why they have been suffering the casualties that they have at the hands of the Ukrainians.” Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, said Russia has used North Korean troops at the heart of an “intensive offensive” in Kursk over several days.
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Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, who was blown up in Moscow on Tuesday by Ukrainian intelligence, headed the Russian military’s radiological, chemical and biological defence programme – a unit blamed by Ukraine, the US and UK for involvement in the use of chemicals on the battlefield, Dan Sabbagh explains. Ukrainian soldiers report a persistent use of chemical weapons, mostly teargas, whose deployment on the battlefield is illegal. The US and UK go further in their accusations and say Russia is using another toxic agent, chloropicrin, first employed to gruesome effect in the trenches of the first world war.
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Nato has taken over as planned from the US in coordinating western military aid to Ukraine, a source said on Tuesday, in a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against Donald Trump. Nato’s military headquarters, Shape, confirmed its Ukraine mission was assuming responsibilities from the US and international organisations. “The work of NSATU … is designed to place Ukraine in a position of strength, which puts Nato in a position of strength to keep safe and prosperous its one billion people in both Europe and North America,” said US army Gen Christopher G Cavoli, the supreme allied commander Europe. “This is a good day for Ukraine and a good day for Nato.”
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The headquarters of Nato’s new Ukraine mission, dubbed Nato Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden. It takes over from the US-led Ramstein group. NSATU is set to have a total strength of about 700 personnel, including troops stationed at Shape in Belgium and logistics hubs in Poland and Romania. Diplomats acknowledge that benefits of the handover to Nato could be lessened if the US under Trump slashes support. The president-elect has previously threatened to pull out of Nato and invited Vladimir Putin to attack its members if they do not contribute more funding.
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Britain on Tuesday sanctioned 20 ships it said had been carrying illicit Russian oil. “As [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s oil revenues continue to fuel the fires of his illegal war, Ukrainian families are enduring cold, dark nights, often without heating, light or electricity, targeted by Russia’s relentless missile attacks,” said Keir Starmer, the British prime minister.
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The Ukrainian air force said on Tuesday it had downed 20 Russia-launched drones. It said on the Telegram messenger that Russia had launched a total of 31 drones and an additional 10 did not reach their targets….
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) killed Russian Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defense Forces (NBC) Head Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his assistant, Major Ilya Polikarpov, in Moscow on December 17.
“President-elect Donald Trump said Ukraine needs to reach a deal to end the Russian invasion and downplayed the value of occupied land, in the latest signal he may push for a settlement that codifies Russian territorial gains,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “He should be prepared to make a deal, that’s all. Got to be a deal. Too many people being killed.”
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