ALWAGHT- Russian authorities report the arrest of a suspect linked to the assassination of General Igor Kirillov, the head of the army's chemical weapons division, stating that he was allegedly recruited by Ukraine.
The suspect, a 29-year-old Uzbek national, was apprehended on Wednesday in the village of Chernoye, located in Moscow's Balashikha district, according to Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk. Authorities allege the individual, whose identity has not been disclosed, was recruited by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) to execute the attack that claimed the lives of General Igor Kirillov and his assistant in Moscow the previous day.
Investigators revealed that the suspect had been promised a $100,000 reward and safe passage to the European Union upon completing his mission. He allegedly traveled to Moscow and planted a homemade bomb beneath an electric scooter near Kirillov's residence. To oversee the operation, he rented a car equipped with a surveillance camera, streaming live footage to his handlers in Dnepr, Ukraine, before remotely detonating the explosive device after spotting the targets exiting the building.
The explosion, equivalent to 200 grams of TNT, occurred near a residential building on Ryazansky Prospekt, around 7 kilometers from the Kremlin. It killed Kirillov, the head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defense Forces (NBC), and his aide, while also damaging nearby structures. The Russian prosecutor’s office confirmed that the suspect confessed to planting the bomb, and a criminal investigation has been launched into the incident.
The SBU later claimed responsibility for the assassination, asserting that Kirillov played a role in the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine—a charge leveled against him just a day before his death. The Kremlin dismissed these accusations as unfounded. Kirillov, who had been sanctioned by several Western nations, including the UK, Canada, and New Zealand, was a prominent figure in the escalating conflict between Ukraine and Russia. His killing further exacerbates the already tense relations between the two countries.
