Friday morning, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik was heading out from his flat in Balashikha, a commuter town east of Moscow, when a car bomb exploded, killing him. There can be little doubt this is an operation by Ukrainian intelligence, another example of their capacity to launch skilful targeted assassinations in the heart of Russia. But will it actually change anything? That is more doubtful.
It is hard not to assume this was another killing by the Ukrainians
Moskalik was not a high-profile figure, but as deputy head of the General Staff’s Main Operations Directorate (GOU), he was a capable officer and potentially on a career track for even higher office. The GOU, after all, is the brains of Russia’s General Staff, the body which oversees the planning and execution of military operations. While it is easy to deride the heavy-handed and wasteful Russian activity in Ukraine, the biggest blunders have tended to be either mandated by Vladimir Putin or his compliant Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, or the result of decisions taken at the tactical level.
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