Russia’s investigative committee has announced the detention of an Uzbek citizen suspected of placing the bomb that killed Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, reportedly acting on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services.
According to Russia’s FSB security service, quoted by Tass news agency, the 29-year-old suspect was allegedly promised $100,000 and EU travel by Ukrainian special services. The arrest took place in the village of Chernoye in Moscow’s Balashikha district.
Kirillov, who headed the military’s chemical, biological and radiological weapons unit, was killed alongside his assistant by a bomb concealed in an electric scooter outside a residential building in south-east Moscow on Tuesday. He is the highest-ranking Russian military officer to be assassinated within Russia. Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service claimed responsibility for the killing, having accused Kirillov of deploying chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces – an allegation Moscow denies.
In a video released by the Baza news outlet, which has connections to Russian law enforcement, the suspect appears in a van describing how he carried out the attack. He claims he purchased an electric scooter and later received an explosive device, setting up surveillance equipment in a hire car to allow operators in Ukraine’s Dnipro to monitor the situation.
The suspect reportedly confessed to remotely detonating the device as Kirillov exited the building. According to investigators, another suspect has also been detained in connection with the killing.
Reuters notes it could not immediately verify the authenticity of the confession video, and the conditions under which the suspect was speaking remain unclear.
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