Russia detains suspect over murder of chemical weapons chief Igor Kirillov
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Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov was killed outside his apartment building along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW - Russia said on Dec 18 it had detained an Uzbek man who confessed to planting and detonating a bomb that killed Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov in Moscow
Mr Kirillov, who was chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside his apartment building on Dec 17 along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off.
He was the most senior Russian military officer to be assassinated in Russia by Ukraine.
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service took responsibility for the killing after Ukraine accused Mr Kirillov of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops, something Moscow denies
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a statement on Dec 18 the unnamed suspect told them he had gone to Moscow to carry out an assignment for Ukraine’s intelligence services.
In a video published by the Baza news outlet, which is known to have sources in Russian law enforcement circles, the suspect is seen sitting in a van describing his actions.
It was not clear under what conditions he was speaking and Reuters could not immediately verify the video’s authenticity.
Dressed in a winter coat, the suspect is shown saying he had gone to Moscow at the orders of Ukraine’s intelligence services, bought an electric scooter and received an improvised explosive device.
He describes placing the device on the scooter parked outside the entrance of the apartment block where Mr Kirillov lived.
Investigators cited him as saying he had set up a surveillance camera in a hire car which, they said, was watched in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro by people who organised the killing.
The suspect, who is thought to have been born in 1995, is shown saying he remotely detonated the device when Mr Kirillov left the building. He says Ukraine offered him US$100,000 (S$135,000) and residency in a European country to carry out the murder.
Investigators said they were identifying other people involved, and the daily Kommersant newspaper reported that another suspect had been detained. Reuters could not independently confirm this.
Moscow to raise incident at UN Security Council
Ms Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said Moscow would raise the assassination at a session of the United Nations Security Council on Dec 20.
Everyone involved in the killing would be found and punished, and Moscow would not be intimidated, she said.
“We see that the Kyiv regime has taken responsibility once again for a new terrorist attack. All these SBU losers and the mad Kyiv regime are all tools managed by the Anglo-Saxons,” Ms Zakharova said, employing a term Russia uses to describe the US and Britain.
“They are the main beneficiaries of Kyiv’s terrorism.”
The US State Department said on Dec 17 that Washington had no connection to the killing nor any prior knowledge of it. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Mr Kirillov had “propagated an illegal invasion and imposed suffering and death on the Ukrainian people”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who says Moscow’s actions in Ukraine are designed to protect Russia’s security against Nato as it expands, has not commented publicly on the killing.
Moscow holds Ukraine responsible for a series of killings on its soil. Ukraine says Russia’s war against it poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state and has made clear it regards such killings – intended to weaken morale and punish those Kyiv regards as guilty of war crimes – as legitimate.
Victims of such attacks include Ms Darya Dugina, the daughter of a Russian nationalist ideologue, pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and a Russian submarine commander. REUTERS
