Russia says it has detained a suspect in the Moscow bombing that killed a senior general
Russia’s security service said Wednesday it detained a citizen from Uzbekistan in the bombing that killed a senior general as he left his southeastern Moscow apartment — a bold assassination that was claimed by Ukraine’s security service.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, also was killed.
The brazen bombing brought the nearly 3-year-old war in Ukraine once again to the streets of the capital.
The suspect was identified by Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies as Akhmad Kurbanov of Uzbekistan.
The Federal Security Service, or FSB, which did not identify him, said he was born in 1995 and was recruited by Ukraine’s security service The Associated Press could not confirm the conditions under which the suspect spoke to the FSB.
He said he had been promised $100,000 and resettlement in a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov, according to the FSB.
The agency said that acting on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect picked up a homemade bomb in Moscow, placed it on an e-scooter and parked it at the entrance to Kirillov’s apartment building.
He rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that livestreamed the scene to his handlers in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the FSB said, detonating the bomb when Kirillov left the building.
The suspect, who was detained in a village in the Moscow region, according to Interior Ministry, could face a life sentence if convicted.
Kirillov, 54, was the chief of Russia’s Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces. These special troops are tasked with protecting the military from the enemy’s use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment.
He was under sanctions from several countries, including the U.K. and Canada, for his actions in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, 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 has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.
An SBU official told AP on Tuesday that the agency was behind the attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, described Kirillov as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.”
The SBU official provided video that was said to be of the bombing, showing two men leaving a building shortly before a blast fills the frame.
Kirillov, who took up his post in 2017, was one of the highest profile figures to level the accusations against Ukraine. He held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive substances — allegations that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as propaganda.
Russian officials described Kirillov’s killing as an act of terrorism and vowed to punish Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday it was “obvious” that Ukraine was behind Kirillov’s killing, saying Kyiv “does not shy away from terrorist methods.”
It was the second time this year that Russia has described an attack in Moscow as an act of terrorism and sought to tie it to Ukraine.
In March, when gunmen attacked a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130 people, President Vladimir Putin said the assailants — four men from Tajikistan, also in Central Asia – were captured while fleeing to Ukraine. Russian officials have claimed that the suspects had links to Ukrainian intelligence agencies, although Kyiv firmly denied involvement and an affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
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Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
