Russia detains suspect over murder of General Igor Kirillov

Investigative Committee says 29-year-old Uzbek national suspected of carrying out Moscow attack on instructions of Ukraine.

Authorities in Russia have arrested a suspect over the killing of a top general and his aide in a bomb blast in Moscow.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement on Wednesday that a national of Uzbekistan had been arrested on suspicion of having committed the attack that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov on Tuesday morning.

It added the 29-year-old suspect said he had been “recruited by Ukrainian special forces”.

Kirillov, 54, had been the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops since 2017. He was killed outside an apartment building when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off.

The bomb was triggered remotely, according to Russian news reports. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork.

“The FSB [Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation]  has even published footage of the interrogation of the man,” said Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow.

“According to the suspect, he was recruited by Ukrainian special services and promised 100,000 dollars and travel to one of the European countries,” she added.

A source in the Security Service of Ukraine or SBU confirmed to Al Jazeera the agency was behind the attack. Ukraine has yet to officially comment on the incident.

On Monday, the SBU had opened a criminal investigation against Kirillov, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons. He was under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s military operations in Ukraine.

Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in its continuing war in Ukraine.

The statement by the Investigative Committee said that the suspect told interrogators that he had come to Moscow to carry out the attack and that a camera mounted on the dashboard of a rented car parked outside the building had filmed the attack and streamed it “live to the attack organisers, in the (Ukrainian) city of Dnipro”.

Kirillov is the most senior Russian military officer to be assassinated inside Russia by Ukraine. His murder is likely to prompt the Russian authorities to review security protocols for the army’s top brass.

Kirillov, who took his current job in 2017, held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive substances – claims that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as propaganda.

Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out a number of assassinations on its soil since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, including the August 2022 killing of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian ultranationalist Alexander Dugin, in a car bombing.