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A suspect has been arrested on suspicion of killing top Russian general Igor Kirillov, who died along with his aide when a bomb planted on a scooter exploded outside his Moscow home on Tuesday.
The FSB, Russia’s main security agency, said on Wednesday that it had arrested an Uzbek man who planted the scooter bomb, then it was fired at a distance.
In addition to this, the suspect placed a camera in the rented car to film the bombing.
The FSB published a video of the suspect, who said he bought the scooter a few months in advance.
The suspect said in the video that Ukrainian intelligence offered him $100,000 and a “European passport” to carry out the attack.
Kirillov, the head of the military’s nuclear, chemical and biological defense forces, is the highest-ranking Russian official to be killed since President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The bombing is the latest in a series of assassinations of senior Russian officials carried out behind enemy lines.
The Kremlin said Putin expressed his “deep condolences”, adding that Russia’s secret services were “effectively” investigating the killing.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told reporters on Wednesday that the killing “once again” showed that Russia’s actions against Ukraine were “correct”, according to state newswire RIA Novosti.
Hardline officials called Russia to respond to Kirillov’s death by targeting senior Ukrainian officials.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former stand-in for Putin who is now his representative on Russia’s security council, called on security officials to “destroy the people behind this in Kyiv”.
Kirillov was hit with UK sanctions in October “for deploying barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine”, including the toxic choking agent chloropicrin.
The SBU, one of Ukraine’s security services, issued a “notice of suspicion” – a warrant – for Kirillov a day before the attack on alleged “war crimes committed” against of forces in Kyiv using chemical weapons.
Kirillov is also known for public briefings where he accused Ukraine of plotting to use chemical weapons and launch US-designed drones carrying “infected mosquitoes” to spread malaria to Russian forces.





