Russia’s security service said it detained a citizen from Uzbekistan in connection with the bombing that killed a senior general as he left his Moscow apartment.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building on Tuesday. His assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, was also killed.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) identified the suspect as Akhmad Kurbanov, 29, who was born in 1995 and was recruited by Ukraine’s security service. He allegedly received a $100,000 payment and resettlement in a European Union country in exchange for carrying out the attack.
According to the FSB, Kurbanov was instructed by Ukraine’s security service to pick up a homemade bomb in Moscow, place it on an e-scooter, and park it outside Kirillov’s apartment building. He also rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera to livestream the scene to his handlers in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
The FSB claimed that Kurbanov detonated the bomb remotely when Kirillov left the building, killing the general and his assistant. The suspect was detained in a village in the Moscow region, where he face a life sentence if convicted.
Kirillov, 54, was a prominent figure in Russia’s military and was under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his actions in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) accused him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons and opened a criminal investigation against him.
Russia’s security service described the bombing as an act of terrorism and vowed to punish Ukraine, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying it was “obvious” that Ukraine was behind the attack.