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The Russian security service announced on Wednesday that it had arrested a suspect in the murder of a senior general in Moscow.
The suspect is described as an Uzbek national who was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, did not name the suspect but said he was born in 1995. According to the FSB statement, the suspect himself said he was recruited by Ukrainian special services.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirilov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukrainian security services filed criminal charges against him. His assistant was also killed in the attack. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.
The FSB said the suspect was promised a reward of US$100,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirilov.
Russia has vowed revenge after the early morning assassination of a senior general in a residential Moscow neighborhood. The Ukrainian intelligence service claimed responsibility.
The agency stated that, acting on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he took a homemade explosive device. He then placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance to the apartment building where Kirilov lived.
Live broadcast of the explosion
The suspect then hired a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that streamed live footage from the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. When Kirilov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.
According to the FSB press release, the suspect faces “up to life imprisonment”.
Kirillov, 54, was the head of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces and was under sanctions from several countries, including Britain and Canada, over his actions in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and in turn has accused Kiev of using toxic agents in combat.
Kirilov, who took his current job in 2017, was one of the most prominent people to make the allegations. He has held numerous briefings to accuse Ukraine’s military of using toxic agents and planning to launch a radioactive attack – claims that Ukraine and its Western allies have dismissed as propaganda.
The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was detonated remotely, according to Russian media reports. Pictures from the scene showed broken windows and burnt brick.
Russia’s top state investigative agency said it was investigating Kirilov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.
