Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
EPAAccording to the Russian security service, a 29-year-old man from Uzbekistan has been arrested in connection with the murder of senior general Igor Kirillov and his assistant in Moscow.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces, was outside an apartment block early Tuesday when an explosive device hidden in a scooter was detonated remotely.
According to state media agencies, the Russian security service said the unnamed suspect was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence.
The Ukrainian security service had already claimed that he was behind the murder. A source told the BBC on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian source said Kirillov – the Russian chemical weapons chief – was “a legitimate target” and had committed war crimes.
On Monday, a day before the killing, Ukraine brought charges in absentia against 54-year-old Kirillov, saying he was “responsible for the mass use of banned chemical weapons.” Russia denies the allegations.
The PR Center of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that the detained 29-year-old was “suspected of committing a terrorist act.”
A statement said that during interrogation he explained that he had been recruited by the Ukrainian special services.
EPAThe FSB said the suspect was “guaranteed” a $100,000 reward and permission to travel to the European Union in return for killing Kirillov.
He added that he arrived in Moscow on Ukraine’s instructions and was given a homemade explosive device.
The FSB said he attached the explosive device to an electric scooter that he parked at the entrance to the apartment building where Kirillov lived.
He then rented a car to monitor Kirillov’s residence and also installed a camera that livestreamed a video feed from the site to his employees in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
When they saw Kirillov leaving the house, the suspect detonated the bomb, the statement said.
Kirillov is believed to be the highest-ranking military official murdered in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.
The 54-year-old has previously been charged by Ukraine sanctioned by the United Kingdom for suspected use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian security service SBU claimed that Russia used chemical weapons more than 4,800 times under the general’s leadership.
Moscow denies this and says it destroyed the last of its vast chemical weapons stockpile in 2017.
Images from the scene outside Kirillov’s apartment block in southeast Moscow on Tuesday showed the badly damaged entrance with burn marks on the walls and several blown out windows. Two body bags could also be seen on the street.
Also on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Russia would raise Kirillov’s killing at Friday’s U.N. Security Council meeting.
Russian officials have vowed to find and punish those involved in the murder.
