On Wednesday, Russia captured a Uzbek man who admitted to planting and detonating a bomb in Moscow, killing a top general, Igor Kirillov, on the orders of Ukraine’s SBU security organisation.
Kirillov, the chief of Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection troops, was killed outside his apartment block on Tuesday along with his aide when a bomb placed in an electric scooter detonated.
He is the highest-ranking Russian military officer slain by Ukraine. Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service assumed blame for the killing after accusing Kirillov of using chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers, which Moscow denies.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which analyses major crimes, said in a statement on Wednesday that the unnamed suspect informed them he had travelled to Moscow to complete a mission for Ukraine’s secret agencies.
In a video uploaded by the Baza news organisation, which is known to have sources in Russian law enforcement circles, the suspect is shown sitting in a van explaining his conduct.
It was unclear under what circumstances he was speaking, and Reuters could not immediately confirm the video’s veracity.
Dressed in a winter coat, the suspect claims to have gone to Moscow on the orders of Ukraine’s secret agencies, purchased an electric scooter, and received an improvised explosive device.
He recounts putting the gadget on an electric scooter parked outside the entrance to Kirillov’s apartment building.
Investigators described him as saying he installed a surveillance camera in a rental car, which was allegedly observed in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro by those who arranged the killing.
The suspect, believed to have been born in 1995, claims to have remotely detonated the bomb after Kirillov exited the building. He claims Ukraine offered him $100,000 and residency in one of Europe’s countries.
Investigators stated they were looking for more people involved, and the daily Kommersant newspaper reported that one more suspect had been apprehended. Reuters was unable to independently corroborate the information.
