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Russia’s security service said Wednesday it has arrested a suspect in the assassination of a top general in Moscow.
The suspect was described as an Uzbek national 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 an FSB statement, the suspect himself said he was recruited by Ukrainian special services .
the lieutenant general Igor Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden on a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow on Tuesday, a day after Ukraine’s security service brought criminal charges against him. His assistant also died in the attack. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.
The FSB said the suspect had been promised a US$100,000 reward and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.
LOOK | Kirillov was under sanctions from many countries, including Canada:
Russia has vowed revenge after the early morning killing of a senior general in a residential area of Moscow. Ukraine’s intelligence service has claimed responsibility.
The agency said that, following instructions from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he picked up a homemade explosive device. He then placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance to the residential building where Kirillov lived.
Live explosion
The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that streamed live footage of the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. When Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.
According to the FSB statement, the suspect faces “a sentence of up to life in prison”.
Kirillov, 54, was the head of the army’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces and was under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his actions in the Moscow military operation in Ukraine On Monday, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
Russia has denied using chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kiev of using toxic agents in combat.
Kirillov, who took up his current job in 2017, was one of the most prominent figures to raise these allegations. He held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive substances, claims that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed as propaganda.
The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was fired from a distance, according to Russian news reports. Pictures from the scene showed broken windows and burnt bricks.
Russia’s main state investigative agency said it is investigating Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and Moscow officials vowed to punish Ukraine.
