Moscow – Russia's security service said Wednesday it has arrested a suspect in the killing of a top general in Moscow.
The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen 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 the FSB statement, the suspect claimed to have been recruited by special services Ukrainian.
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 retaliate against Ukrainian leaders.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and a completely legitimate target, because he gave orders to use prohibited chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” an informed source in the SBU told CBS News. “Such a tactical end waiting for everyone to kill the Ukrainians. Reparations for war crimes are inevitable.”
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Lt. Gen. It was Igor Kirillov was killed on Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter 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 that the service carried out the attack.
The FSB said the suspect was promised a reward of $100,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.
The agency, acting on instructions from Ukraine, said the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he built a homemade explosive device. Then he put the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance of the residential building where Kirillov lived.
The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that streamed live footage from the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Once Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.
According to the FSB statement, the suspect faces “a sentence of up to life imprisonment”.
Kirillov, 54, was the head of the military's nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces and was under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his actions in Moscow's military operations in Ukraine. On Monday, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.
Kirillov, who took up his current job in 2017, was one of the most prominent figures to level these allegations. He held several meetings to accuse Ukraine's military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive materials – claims that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed as propaganda.
The bomb used in Tuesday's attack was triggered remotely, according to Russian news reports. Pictures from the scene showed broken windows and broken brickwork.
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Russia's main state investigative agency said it was looking into Kirillov's death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.
