General Igor Kirillov was killed on Tuesday by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter parked outside his home in Moscow. His assistant also died in the attack.
The day before, Ukrainian security services had filed criminal charges against Mr. Kirillov. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.
The Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, did not reveal the suspect’s identity, but said he was born in 1995. According to an FSB statement, the suspect himself claimed to have been recruited by the Ukrainian special services.
The FSB said the suspect was promised a $100,000 reward and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing General Kirillov.
The Russian agency said that, on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect went to Moscow, retrieved a homemade explosive device, placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it in the entrance of the residential building where Mr. Kirillov lived.
The suspect then rented a car to monitor the scene and installed a camera that broadcast the scene live to his agents in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine. Once Mr. Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.
According to the FSB press release, the suspect faces a sentence of up to life in prison.
Igor Kirillov, who was 54 years old, was the head of the Russian army’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces. He was under sanctions from several countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, for his actions during Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.
On Monday, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of ordering the use of banned chemical weapons. Russia has denied using chemical weapons in Ukraine and accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.
An SBU official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the agency was behind the attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, described Mr. Kirillov as a “war criminal and a completely legitimate target.”
This SBU official provided a video which he claimed was of the attack. We see two men leaving a building shortly before an explosion fills the frame.
Russia’s main state investigative agency confirmed it was treating Mr. Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.
