Russia said on Wednesday it had detained an Uzbek man who had confessed to planting and detonating a bomb which killed top chemical weapons general Igor Kirillov in Moscow on the instructions of Ukraine’s SBU security service.
The World Bank said on Wednesday its executive board had approved $2.05-billion in Development Policy Operation funding for Ukraine that includes the first grant from a new $20-billion US loan fund for Kyiv that is backed by income from frozen Russian sovereign assets.
A new Nato command in the German city of Wiesbaden had taken up its work to coordinate Western military aid for Ukraine, the alliance’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, said on Wednesday.
Russia detains suspect over murder of chemical weapons chief
Russia said on Wednesday it had detained an Uzbek man who had confessed to planting and detonating a bomb which killed a top general, Igor Kirillov, in Moscow on the instructions of Ukraine’s SBU security service.
Kirillov, who was chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside his apartment building on Tuesday along with his assistant when a bomb attached to an electric scooter went off.
He is the most senior Russian military officer to be assassinated in Russia by Ukraine. Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service took responsibility for the killing after Ukraine accused Kirillov of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops — something Moscow denies.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a statement on Wednesday that the unnamed suspect had told them he had come to Moscow to carry out an assignment for Ukraine’s intelligence services.
In a video published by the Baza news outlet, which is known to have sources in Russian law-enforcement circles, the suspect is seen sitting in a van describing his actions.
It was not clear under what conditions he was speaking and Reuters could not immediately verify the video’s authenticity.
Dressed in a winter coat, the suspect is shown saying he had come to Moscow, bought an electric scooter, and received an improvised explosive device.
He describes placing the device on the electric scooter and parking it outside the apartment block where Kirillov lived.
Investigators cited him as saying he set up a surveillance camera in a hire car which, they said, was watched in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro by people who organised the killing.
The suspect, who is thought to be 29, is shown saying he remotely detonated the device when Kirillov left the building. He says Ukraine had offered him $100,000 and residency in a European country.
World Bank approves $2bn for Ukraine
The World Bank said on Wednesday its executive board had approved $2.05-billion in Development Policy Operation funding for Ukraine that includes the first grant from a new $20-billion US loan fund for Kyiv that is backed by income from frozen Russian sovereign assets.
The new package aimed at boosting Ukraine’s financial and economic stability also includes World Bank financing of $1.05-billion that is enhanced with loan guarantees from a trust fund supported by Japan and Britain, said the World Bank.
Nato command in Germany to assist Ukraine is up and running - Rutte
A new Nato command in the German city of Wiesbaden had taken up its work to coordinate Western military aid for Ukraine, the alliance’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, said on Wednesday.
The command takes over coordination of the aid from the US, in a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against Nato sceptic US President-elect Donald Trump.
“The Nato command in Wiesbaden for security assistance and training for Ukraine is now up and running,” Rutte told reporters at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels.
Trump, who will take office in January, has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine swiftly without elaborating how he aims to do so. He has long criticised the scale of US financial and military aid to Ukraine.
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.
The US-led Ramstein group of around 50 nations, an ad hoc coalition named after a U.S. air base in Germany where it first met, has coordinated Western military supplies to Kyiv since 2022.
It will continue to exist as a political forum as Nsatu assumes the military implementation of decisions taken there.
Diplomats, however, acknowledge that the handover to Nato may have a limited effect, given that the US under Trump could still deal a major setback to Ukraine by slashing its support, as it is the alliance’s dominant power and provides the majority of arms to Kyiv.
Germany doubles arms exports to Ukraine, halves them to Israel
The German government has doubled its arms exports to Ukraine this year and halved them to Israel compared to 2023, data from the economy ministry showed on Wednesday.
Being the main recipient country, Ukraine will have received weapons and other military equipment worth €8.1-billion, up from €4.4-billion last year.
Germany has so far approved arms exports worth €13.2-billion this year, according to provisional data from the ministry running until 17 December.
Export approvals for Israel have dropped to €161-million, coinciding with a legal challenge by human rights groups concerned about the potential use of weapons in the Gaza war.
Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth €326.5-million, including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase from 2022, according to data from the economy ministry, which approves export licences.
Russian minister says Moscow can work with Trump administration
Russia can definitely work with the administration of Trump after he is sworn in as US president next month, said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Wednesday.
Ryabkov reiterated accusations by Moscow that “reckless” actions by the West had raised the risk of nuclear war and described global security as depressing. Russia, he said, wanted to reduce the potential for conflict.
“Managing this crisis and getting to less shaky ground than now should be put on the agenda of hypothetical discussions with the Americans,” Ryabkov told a panel discussion.
“Is it possible to work with the Trump administration? It’s definitely possible,” he replied when asked about the potential for cooperation.
His comments were the latest signal that Moscow, once Trump takes office, hopes for an improvement in bilateral ties which the Kremlin has said are currently “below zero”.
Ryabkov said he wanted to underline that no contacts of any kind had so far taken place between Russia and the incoming Trump team.
Europeans grapple over security force for post-war Ukraine
European nations are discussing sending troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal, as Trump has made clear he will not put US boots on the ground to guarantee security, say officials and diplomats.
The talks, driven by French President Emmanuel Macron, are at an early stage, but they have already revealed splits over such a mission’s possible aims and mandate — and even the wisdom of broaching the issue now.
With Kyiv on the back foot in the war, European leaders want to avoid giving Russian President Vladimir Putin the impression they believe the time has come for talks and that he will get to keep his battlefield gains. They insist they are focused on boosting military and economic aid for Ukraine and see no sign Putin is ready to negotiate.
Yet behind the scenes, some officials are considering how European nations might provide security guarantees for Ukraine, including through a force of tens of thousands of soldiers on Ukrainian soil.
Such a force would raise the risk of a direct confrontation with Russia and stretch European militaries, whose arms stocks have been depleted by donations to Ukraine and who are used to relying heavily on US support for major missions.
But Trump ruled out US troops playing a part in enforcing a ceasefire and insisted Europeans would need to play this role alone in talks with Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on 7 December, according to two sources.
That could mean Europeans deploying to Ukraine, whether Kyiv gets a security guarantee through joining Nato — as it hopes — or via bilateral assurances.
“Even if there were a Nato security guarantee, where would the impetus on the ground come from? It would be European, so our army chiefs are already preparing plans for European leaders to consider in the future,” said a senior European official.
Big European nations such as France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Britain could form the bulk of the force, say officials.
After talks with Macron last week, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared Warsaw had no plans to join such a force.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday Berlin would likely play a role in securing a ceasefire but it was far too early to say what kind of force would be needed.
Analysts said the debate so far revealed confusion over whether a future European mission would undertake a traditional peacekeeping role, such as monitoring a ceasefire line, or provide a robust deterrent against any further Russian attack.
Italian officials have spoken of peacekeeping, while French and Ukrainian officials have focused on deterrence.
A deterrence force could be formed by a coalition of some five to eight nations, a Ukrainian official privy to some of the discussions said.
Analysts and officials have given varying estimates of the size of such a force, stressing much would depend on its precise mission. Some analysts have suggested around 40,000 troops might be feasible.
Under a rotation scheme that would also have units preparing to deploy and reconstituting after a deployment, some 100,000 troops could be involved in the mission at any one time, said Franz-Stefan Gady, an Austrian former military planner now at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“It’s going to severely stretch European land forces, for sure,” he said.
A European security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said as many as 100,000 troops could be needed.
Gady said such a force could be generated if some European nations cut back on other missions, such as Balkan peacekeeping.
Russia accuses Ukraine of dropping white phosphorus from drones
Russia said on Wednesday that Ukraine had repeatedly dropped white phosphorus munitions from drones in September, but Kyiv denied it had used such weapons and said it was Moscow which had used prohibited chemical substances on the battlefield.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said law enforcement agencies had evidence of the use of such munitions by Ukraine, but she did not provide details.
“The law enforcement agencies of our country, together with the Russian Defence Ministry, have received irrefutable evidence of the repeated use of white phosphorus ammunition dropped from drones by the armed forces of Ukraine in September,” said Zakharova.
Ukraine, which has accused Russia of using phosphorus in the war, said Zakharova’s statement was false and accused Russia of using prohibited chemical substances on the battlefield.
“The Russian accusations are false and nonsensical,” foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told Reuters in a written statement. DM