Authorities in Russia have detained a suspect related to the bombing that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his aide, Ilya Polikarpov, in Moscow.
The Investigative Committee said on Wednesday that a 29-year-old Uzbek national has been arrested in connection with the attack, which occurred on Tuesday morning. The suspect reportedly claimed to have been “recruited by Ukrainian special forces.”
Kirillov, 54, commanded Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops since 2017. He was killed outside the apartment building when a bomb inside an electric scooter detonated. The explosion was remotely controlled, according to the report; broken windows and destroyed brickwork were seen on photographs of the scene.
A source from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) confirmed for Al Jazeera that the agency was behind the attack although Ukraine has yet to officially comment on the incident.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) released footage of the suspect’s interrogation, saying he could face a life sentence. The agency reported that the suspect was promised a reward of $100,000 and relocation to a European Union country in exchange for the assassination of Kirillov.
According to the FSB, the attacker traveled to Moscow at the request of Ukraine, where he received a homemade explosive device. He fixed the device to the electric scooter and left it at the entrance of Kirillov’s residence. The attacker also rented a car to conduct reconnaissance and set up a camera, which streamed footage to accomplices in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. He detonated the bomb as Kirillov left the building.
Kirillov’s assassination takes it to a new level in the sense that he was the highest-ranking Russian military officer killed on Russian territory since the beginning of hostilities. This would call for an assessment of security protocols of senior military personnel in the country.
Since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, Kirillov regularly briefed the media, claiming that the Ukrainian military had employed toxic agents and was planning to carry out attacks involving radioactive materials—a claim that Ukraine and its Western allies have continuously dismissed as propaganda.
Russia has accused Ukraine of organizing several assassinations within its borders since the start of the war, targeting missile developers, weapons designers, and commanders of long-range units involved in attacks against Ukrainian positions.
