Suspect arrested over killing of General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological and chemical forces, in Moscow explosion

Moscow – Russia’s security service said Wednesday it has arrested a suspect in connection with the assassination of a top general in Moscow.

The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) did not name the suspect but said he was born in 1995. According to a statement from the FSB, the suspect said he was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Ukrainian security sources told CBS News on Monday that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) killed Kirillov in a special operation. The claim could not be independently verified, but Russian officials quickly vowed to take revenge on Ukraine’s leadership.

“Kirillov was a war criminal and a perfectly legitimate target because he gave the order to use banned chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” an informed SBU source told CBS News. “Such an inglorious end awaits anyone who kills Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”

Lieutenant Gen. Igor Kirillov was was killed on Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter in front of his home in Moscow, a day after the Ukrainian security service filed a criminal complaint against him. His assistant also died in the attack. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.

The FSB said the suspect was promised a $100,000 reward and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.

The agency said the suspect traveled to Moscow on Ukraine’s instructions, 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 apartment building where Kirillov lived.

The suspect then rented a car to monitor the site and set up a camera that livestreamed footage from the crime 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, the suspect faces “a prison sentence up to life in prison.”

Kirillov, 54, was chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces and was sanctioned for his actions in several countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. On Monday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.

Russia denied the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine and in return accused Kiev of using toxic agents in combat.

Kirillov, who took up his current job in 2017, was one of the most prominent representatives of these allegations. He held numerous briefings in which he accused the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning attacks with radioactive substances – claims that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed as propaganda.

According to Russian news reports, the bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was triggered remotely. Images from the scene of the accident showed broken windows and burnt masonry.

Russia’s top state investigative agency said it viewed Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.