Moscow [Russia], December 18 (ANI): A 29-year-old man from Uzbekistan has been arrested in connection with the killing of a senior Russian general Igor Kirillov and his assistant in Moscow, as reported by CNN.
As per Russia’s Investigative Committee, the suspect had been recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and was acting under its orders. The committee also claimed that the suspect had been promised USD 100,000 in cash and the opportunity to escape to live in a European country.
“The detainee received a homemade explosive device and placed it on an electric scooter which he parked at the entrance to the residential building where Igor Kirillov lived,” the committee said in a statement.
Notably, the suspect had rented a car and fitted it with a surveillance camera to monitor Kirillov’s residence, the committee added. The footage was monitored by the attack’s organisers in Dnipro, an eastern city in Ukraine, it said, who remotely detonated the bomb when they saw Kirillov and his assistant leave the building on Ryazansky Street early Tuesday morning, CNN reported.
Kirillov, who was accused of using chemical weapons on the battlefields in Ukraine was killed in a bomb blast in Moscow, in an attack claimed by Ukraine, CNN reported citing Russian investigators.
Lieutenant General Kirillov, who headed Russia’s radiological, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a remotely detonated bomb planted in an electric scooter outside an apartment building approximately seven kilometres southeast of the Kremlin, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.
The blast came a day after Ukrainian prosecutors sentenced Kirillov in absentia for Russia’s use of banned chemical weapons during its invasion.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical substances against the Ukrainian military,” CNN quoted a source as saying. “Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”
Kirillov, 54, is the most senior military official known to be killed since the beginning of Russia-Ukraine in February 2022. His assistant, named in Russian media as Ilya Polikarpov, was also killed in the blast on Ryazansky Street. (ANI)
