The killing of a Russian general is one of several that Moscow blames on Ukraine

Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, has claimed responsibility for killing Lt. General Igor Kirillov, head of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, in a bombing Tuesday in Moscow.

Kirillov, 54, was killed alongside his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, when a bomb planted on a scooter exploded outside an apartment block.

An official with the SBU said the agency was behind the attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, described Kirillov as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.” On Monday, Kirillov was charged in absentia by the SBU for ”ordering the use of banned chemical weapons against Ukraine’s Defense Forces.”

Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out other high-profile attacks throughout the nearly 3-year-old war. Kyiv has hinted at its involvement but Ukrainian officials have stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility.

Other high-profile attacks that Russia has blamed on Ukraine:

TV commentator Darya Dugina, 29, was killed in August 2022 when a remote-controlled bomb planted in her SUV blew up as she drove on Moscow's outskirts.

Her father, Alexander Dugin, was widely believed to be the intended target. The philosopher, writer and political theorist is an ardent supporter of the war and a prominent proponent of the ideology that emphasizes traditional values, the restoration of Russia’s power and the unity of all ethnic Russians.

Ukraine denied responsibility for the attack, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Dugina is “not our responsibility. She is not a citizen of our country. We are not interested in her.”

Russia’s Federal Security Agency, the FSB, publicly identified two suspects, Ukrainian citizens.

Military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in April 2023 when a bomb tore through a cafe in central St Petersburg where he had been speaking.

Tatarsky, 40, supported the war in Ukraine and filed regular reports from the front for his Telegram followers.

Born in the Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, the former coal miner was convicted of bank robbery and escaped after a Russia-backed separatist rebellion engulfed the region in 2014. He joined the rebels and fought on the front line before turning to blogging.

Darya Trepova, 26, was convicted of the bombing and sentenced to 27 years in prison after she was seen on camera presenting a small statue to Tatarsky that exploded shortly afterward. Trepova testified she didn’t know the gift contained a bomb.

Nationalist Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin narrowly avoided death in a car bombing in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region in May 2023. His driver was killed, while Prilepin was hospitalized with broken bones, bruised lungs and other injuries.

Prilepin, known for support of the war, was sanctioned by the European Union.

A Ukrainian, Alexander Permyakov, was found guilty of the attack in a Russian court and sentenced to life imprisonment. Russia’s Investigative Committee accused him of working under orders from Kyiv.

Former submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky was gunned down in July 2023 while jogging in Krasnodar, Russia.

Ukrainian media reported that Rzhitsky was one of six submarine commanders able to launch the long-range missiles that hit Vinnytsia, Ukraine, a year earlier, killing 23 people and wounding over 100.

When he died, Rzhitsky was deputy head of a military mobilization office in Krasnodar. Russian media outlets reported that the 42-year-old regularly used a fitness app that could have been used to track his movements,

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate, denied Kyiv's involvement in the death. However, the agency also released details about the killing, including the time of the attack and the number of shots fired. A 64-year-old Ukrainian-born man, Sergei Denisenko, was later arrested.

Illia Kyva, a Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia shortly after the full-scale invasion, was found dead near Moscow in December 2023 with a gunshot wound to the head.

A controversial political figure in Ukraine before the war, Kyva, 46, often appeared on pro-Kremlin TV talk shows and discussions. A month before his death, a Ukrainian court found him guilty in absentia of treason and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said after Kyva’s death that “the same fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine." He did not say who was behind the killing. Russia’s state Investigative Committee opened a probe, but no charges have been made.

Sergei Yevsyukov, the former head of a prison that housed Ukrainian POWs, was killed Dec. 9 after a bomb exploded under a car in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, Ukrainian media reported. One other person was injured in the blast.

Yevsyukov had run the Olenivka Prison, where dozens of POWs died in a missile strike in July 2022. He later was charged in absentia by Ukrainian authorities with “mass torture."

Russian authorities said Saturday they had detained a suspect in the attack.

Ukrainian media reported Dec. 12 that Russian missile designer Mikhail Shatsky was gunned down in a suburban Moscow park. Shatsky worked at the Moscow Experimental Design Bureau Mars, where he reportedly oversaw the modernization of cruise missiles.

Several Ukrainian media outlets reported that Shatsky had been shot while walking in the Kuzminsky forest, near his home. Russian news media reported on a disturbance in the same area on the day of Shatsky’s reported death, but did not elaborate.

FILE - Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

FILE - Cemetery workers carry a portrait of slain Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky during a funeral at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, on April 8, 2023. (Anton Velikzhanin, M24/Moscow News Agency via AP, File)

FILE - A portrait of Daria Dugina is seen as relatives hold her memorial service in Moscow, Russia, on Aug. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov, File)

FILE - In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Feb. 28, 2023, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, speaks at a briefing in Moscow, Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)

Investigators stand at the site where Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, were killed by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment's block in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Richard “Dick” Codey, a former acting governor of New Jersey and the longest serving legislator in the state's history, died Sunday. He was 79.

Codey’s wife, Mary Jo Codey, confirmed her husband’s death to The Associated Press.

“Gov. Richard J. Codey passed away peacefully this morning at home, surrounded by family, after a brief illness,” Codey's family wrote in a Facebook post on Codey's official page.

"Our family has lost a beloved husband, father and grandfather -- and New Jersey lost a remarkable public servant who touched the lives of all who knew him," the family said.

Known for his feisty, regular-guy persona, Codey was a staunch advocate of mental health awareness and care issues. The Democrat also championed legislation to ban smoking from indoor areas and sought more money for stem cell research.

Codey, the son of a northern New Jersey funeral home owner, entered the state Assembly in 1974 and served there until he was elected to the state Senate in 1982. He served as Senate president from 2002 to 2010.

Codey first served as acting governor for a brief time in 2002, after Christine Todd Whitman’s resignation to join President George W. Bush’s administration. He held the post again for 14 months after Gov. Jim McGreevey resigned in 2004.

At that time, New Jersey law mandated that the Senate president assume the governor’s role if a vacancy occurred, and that person would serve until the next election.

Codey routinely drew strong praise from residents in polls, and he gave serious consideration to seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2005. But he ultimately chose not to run when party leaders opted to back wealthy Wall Street executive Jon Corzine, who went on to win the office.

Codey would again become acting governor after Corzine was incapacitated in April 2007 due to serious injuries he suffered in a car accident. He held the post for nearly a month before Corzine resumed his duties.

After leaving the governor’s office, Codey returned to the Senate and also published a memoir that detailed his decades of public service, along with stories about his personal and family life.

“He lived his life with humility, compassion and a deep sense of responsibility to others,” his family wrote. “He made friends as easily with Presidents as he did with strangers in all-night diners.”

Codey and his wife often spoke candidly about her past struggles with postpartum depression, and that led to controversy in early 2005, when a talk radio host jokingly criticized Mary Jo and her mental health on the air.

Codey, who was at the radio station for something else, confronted the host and said he told him that he wished he could “take him outside.” But the host claimed Codey actually threatened to “take him out,” which Codey denied.

His wife told The Associated Press that Codey was willing to support her speaking out about postpartum depression, even if it cost him elected office.

“He was a really, really good guy,” Mary Jo Codey said. “He said, ‘If you want to do it, I don’t care if I get elected again.’”

Jack Brook contributed reporting from New Orleans.

FILE - New Jersey State Sen. and former Democratic Gov. Richard Codey is seen before New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy delivers his State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature at the statehouse, in Trenton, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)