Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made a rare admission of failings by his powerful security agencies over the Ukraine-orchestrated killing of a senior general in Moscow. Lt. General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military’s chemical and biological weapons unit, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter in Moscow on Tuesday, the boldest assassination claimed by Kyiv since the start of the conflict.
“Our special facilities did not achieve those successes. Those successes were missed. This means that we will have to work. We will have to not allow such serious mistakes to occur,” Putin said at his year-end press conference, speaking to a number of journalists. of attacks in Russia against prominent Kremlin supporters in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukraine has been linked to past attacks in Russia, the car bomb attack on nationalist Darya Dugina in August 2022 and an explosion at a St. Petersburg café in April 2023 that killed senior army correspondent Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky.
Putin was addressing the killing of Kirillov for the first time, more than 48 hours after the blast in a residential part of the Russian capital. Questions have been asked in Moscow about the security protocols for such a high-ranking and public figure involved in the military offensive on Ukraine.
kyiv claimed responsibility for the attack, saying explosives were placed on an abandoned electric scooter near the door of a residential building.
When Kirillov and his assistant left the building, it detonated, killing them both.
Russia has detained an Uzbek citizen born in 1995, suspected of carrying out the attack, the Investigative Committee said Wednesday.
It claimed he said he had been “recruited by Ukrainian special forces.”
Putin on Thursday the attack “terrorism”.
A source in Ukraine’s SBU security services called Kirillov a “legitimate target” and has accused him of being behind the mass use of banned chemical weapons on the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
Putin said Thursday that he is able to communicate “at any time” with US President-elect Donald Trump, who highlighted his ability to achieve a peace deal in Ukraine hours after taking office.
Trump, who will return to the White House in January, has stoked fears in kyiv that he could force Ukraine to settle for peace on terms favorable to Moscow.
Holding his annual end-of-year press conference, the Kremlin leader said his troops held the upper hand across the battlefield, but was forced to admit he does not know when Russia will take back the western Kursk region where Ukrainian troops launched an incursion in August.
The classic annual question-and-answer sessions, which last for hours, are largely a television spectacle, but also a rare scenario in which he embarrasses himself and answers awkward questions.
When asked about Trump’s proposals for a possible peace deal, Putin said he would welcome a meeting with the new Republican.
“I don’t know when I’m going to see him. He isn’t saying anything about it. I haven’t talked to him in more than four years. I am ready for it, of course. Any time,” Putin said.
“If we ever meet with President-elect Trump, I’m sure we will have a lot to say,” he said, adding that Russia was in a position to “negotiate and reach compromises. “
Recently, the Kremlin welcomed Trump’s harsh complaint about President Biden’s resolve to allow Kyiv to use U. S. -supplied missiles to attack Russian territory, a major escalation in the nearly 20-year-old conflict. Three years that, according to Biden’s leadership, were necessary due to Putin’s recruitment in thousands of countries in the North. Korean infantry to their own floor forces.
Russia’s troops have been advancing in eastern Ukraine for months, with Putin repeatedly touting their prowess on the battlefield.
“We are moving towards resolving the primary aims that we set at the start of the special military operation,” Putin said, using Russia’s term for the conflict. “Our guys are fighting heroically. The capabilities of the armed forces are growing.”
Moscow’s military complex in November at its fastest speed in Ukraine since the first month of its 2022 attack.
But when asked by a woman in the Kursk region when citizens will return to their homes, after thousands of people were evacuated from frontline spaces amid the Ukrainian attack, Putin replied that perhaps he would not give a date.
“Surely the expulsaremos. Absolutamente. De the opposite. But on the question of an express date, I’m sorry, I can’t say that at this point,” he admitted.
Putin appeared to repeat his threat to strike Kyiv with Russia’s powerful new multiple-warhead ballistic missile, dubbed Oreshnik. Russia has touted the Oreshnik as a hypersonic weapon virtually impossible to intercept, but an official at the U.S. Defense Department told CBS News it was assessed to be a variant of Russia’s existing RS-26 rocket, an “experimental” intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM.
Asked Thursday by a military journalist if the weapon had any defects, Putin advised a “high-tech duel” between the West and Russia to test their claims that the weapon is impervious to air defenses.
“Let them establish a target to attack, let’s say in kyiv. They will put all their air defenses there. And we will launch an Oreshnik attack there and see what happens,” Putin proposed.
In his first public comments since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Putin rejected claims that his ouster was a “defeat” for Russia.
“You want to present what is happening in Syria as a defeat for Russia,” Putin said in response to a question from a journalist. “I assure you it is not… we have achieved our goals.”
Putin said he has not yet met Assad, who fled to Moscow as rebels closed in on Damascus, but plans to soon.
Putin came to Assad’s rescue more than once over the course of the grueling civil war in Syria, and he stands to lose a significant military foothold in the volatile Middle East with his long-time ally now decisively out of power.
Putin was also pressed Thursday on the economic headwinds facing Russia — the fallout from a huge ramp up in military spending and deep labor shortages caused by the conflict.
He insisted that the situation was “stable, despite external threats,” citing low unemployment and industrial growth.
Asked about rising inflation, Putin said that “inflation is a sign of concern” and that the rising cost of foods such as butter and meat is “unpleasant. “
He acknowledged that Western sanctions were also a factor — “while they do not have key significance” — and criticized his country’s central bank, saying it should have taken measures beyond raising rates to lower inflation.