An Uzbek citizen has been detained over the killing of senior Russian general Igor Kirillov, Russian investigators announced on Wednesday.
Lt Gen Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces, was killed by an explosive hidden inside a e-scooter outside an apartment on Moscow’s Ryazansky Prospekt on Tuesday morning.
Ukrainian security sources have claimed responsibility for the explosion, with one saying he was a “legitimate target” due to his actions in Russia’s invasion of the country.
The Russian Federal Security Service's (FSB) said on Wednesday it had detained 29-year-old Akhmad Kurbanov was "suspected of committing a terrorist attack".
In a supposed ‘confession’ video released by Russian media, the suspect is seen describing his alleged actions in carrying out the hit.
Dressed in a winter coat, he is seen saying he had come to Moscow at the orders of Ukraine's intelligence services, bought an electric scooter, and then received an improvised explosive device to carry out the attack months later.
He is seen describing how he placed the device on the electric scooter which he had parked outside the entrance of the apartment block where Kirillov lived and detonated it once he saw him leaving on a livestream set up outside the block.
This was allegedly carried out under orders from handlers in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, who had promised him $100,000 and permission to move to the EU, Russian investigators have claimed.
The circumstances under which the video was filmed is not clear.
Russian politicians have vowed revenge over the killing, which came a day after Ukrainian prosecutors charged Kirillov in absentia over the alleged use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Kyiv said Russia launched 81 drones to attack Ukraine overnight of which 30 "imitator drones" did not reach their targets and 51 were shot down.
The blast is said to have had the power equivalent of roughly 300g of TNT, Russian state media said.
Footage of the explosion from a nearby car appeared to show the general and his assistant leaving an apartment just moments before.
As they stood on the pavement, the bomb detonated in a flash of bright light, shattering the glass of nearby windows.
The UK in October sanctioned Kirillov and the nuclear protection forces for using riot control agents and over alleged use of toxic choking agent chloropicrin to secure battlefield gains.
Kirillov’s assets were frozen and he was subject to a travel ban, with the Foreign Office describing him as a "significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation".
The sanctions named him as being “responsible for, engaging in, providing support for, or promoting prohibited activity related to chemical weapons” as the head of the military unit “which has been involved in the transfer and use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.”
The 54-year-old had also been sanctioned by Canada, New Zealand and Ukraine over his role in Russia’s invasion, which began in February 2022.
Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defence troops, known as RKhBZ, are special forces who operate under conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination.
