Moscow – Russian security said Wednesday they arrested a suspect in the murder of a no-nonsense general in a bomb explosion in Moscow. The suspect was described as an Uzbek national who the company said had been recruited through the Ukrainian intelligence Array.
Ukrainian security sources told CBS News on Monday that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was behind the explosion that killed Lt. General Igor Kirillov. The claim couldn’t be independently verified, but Russian officials quickly vowed to take revenge against Ukraine’s leaders.
Russia’s Federal Security Service did not call the suspect but said he was born in 1995. According to an FSB statement, the suspect said he recruited through the Ukrainian special services.
“Kirillov is a war thief and an absolutely valid target, as he ordered the use of banned chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” an informed source from the SBU told CBS News. “Such a shameful end awaits anyone who kills Ukrainians. Punishment for war crimes is inevitable. “
Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant also died in the attack.
The FSB said the suspect promised a $100,000 commendation and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov. According to the statement, following orders from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he recovered an improvised explosive device. He then placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it in front of the residential building where Kirillov lived.
The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that livestreamed video from 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 press release, the suspect faces “a sentence of up to prison. “
Kirillov, 54 years old, head of the radiological, biological and chemical coverage forces of the Russian army. Kirillov himself or his military unit have been sanctioned in several countries, including the United States, Great Britain and Canada, for the alleged use of chemical weapons on the battlefield. in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s SBU opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
Ukraine’s SBU said it had recorded more than 4,800 cases in which Russia used chemical weapons on the battlefield since President Vladimir Putin introduced his large-scale invasion in February 2022. In May, the US State Department announced sanctions against Kirillov’s unit, saying that the United States had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a poisonous fuel first used in World War I, against Ukrainian troops.
Russia denied using chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, accused Kiev of employing poisonous agents in combat, and Kirillov was allegedly the propagator of this propaganda.
Kirillov, in office since April 2017, has been accused by the US government of contributing to the spread of disinformation about biological weapons and research.
In March 2023, about a year after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the U. S. State Department said Kirillov had “significantly increased his engagement with the media” to make repeated and unsubstantiated claims that the U. S. government had been involved in the creation of the mpox virus and COVID-19. 19, and that the United States is “developing biological weapons capable of selectively targeting ethnic groups. “
“The US government is involved in this false narrative being a prelude to a false flag operation, in which Russia itself uses biological, chemical or nuclear weapons in Ukraine and then attempts to shift the blame to Russia. Ukraine and/ or the United States,” the State Department said at the time.
The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was triggered remotely, according to Russian news reports. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork.
Russia’s most sensible state investigation firm said it was investigating Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.