Russia arrests an Uzbek citizen involved in the killing of a senior general in Moscow

The Russian Security Service announced on Wednesday that it had arrested a suspect in the killing of a senior general in Moscow.

The suspect was described as an Uzbek national who had been 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 a statement from the FSB, the suspect himself said he was recruited by Ukrainian special services.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed on Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a motorcycle outside his apartment building in Moscow, 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 Federal Security Service said that the suspect was promised a reward of 100,000 US dollars and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.

The agency reported that on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he picked up a homemade explosive device. Then he put the device on an electric motorcycle and parked it at the entrance to the apartment building where Kirillov lived.

The explosion live broadcast

The suspect then rented a car to monitor the site and set up a camera that broadcast live footage from the scene to those responsible for it in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine. As soon as Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.

According to a statement by the Federal Security Service, the suspect faces “punishment of up to life imprisonment.”

Kirillov, 54, was the commander of the army’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces and was under sanctions from several countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada, over his actions in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. On Monday, the Ukrainian Security Service opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.

Russia denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine, and in turn accused Kiev of using toxic materials in the fighting.

Kirillov, who assumed his current position in 2017, was one of the most prominent figures to make these accusations. He held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning attacks with radioactive materials — claims that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as propaganda.

Russian news reports said the bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was detonated remotely. Pictures from the scene showed smashed windows and burned bricks.

Russia’s top government investigative agency said it was looking into Kirillov’s death as a terrorist case, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.