Russia has detained an Uzbekistan man they claim is responsible for the assassination of its top nuclear weapons chief – and he purportedly confessed to carrying out the explosive killing in return for $100,000.
The 29-year-old man was filmed handcuffed in the back of a car and explained in the footage released by the Baza news outlet that he was sent to Moscow on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence.
There, he said he was given an improvised bomb that he rigged to an electric scooter, then planted the trap outside the apartment where Lt. Gen Igor Kirillov lived.
Law enforcement detain a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan on suspicion of detonating an IED during the December 17 assassination of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov. ZUMAPRESS.comThe hit, he claimed, was carried out in return for cash and European residency, according to Reuters. Investigators said he hid a camera across from the blast site so his handlers in Ukrainian could watch in real time.
It remains unclear under what conditions the 29-year-old made the confession, and Reuters has been unable to verify the video. Baza news is known to have close sources in Russian law enforcement.
Krillov, 54, was killed alongside an assistant when a bomb-rigged scooter exploded early Tuesday morning.
Ukraine gladly admitted its role in the killing shortly after, saying Krillov was taken out for allegedly orchestrating the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops. Moscow denies those allegations.
Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside his apartment building on Tuesday along with his assistant. AP
Kirillov was killed when a bomb hidden in a nearby electric scooter went off in Moscow. Channel 24/east2west newsThe country has argued that because Russia’s invasion poses an existential threat to its existence, such assassinations are legitimate. Ukraine has also vowed to retaliate against Russians they say have committed war crimes against its people.
Russia, meanwhile, has vowed to identify and punish all parties involved in the assassination – and intimated that the United States and Britain could have played a part.
“We see that the Kyiv regime has taken responsibility once again for a new terrorist attack. All these SBU losers and the mad Kiev regime are all tools managed by the Anglo-Saxons,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said after the arrest, using a term Russia commonly uses to refer to the US and UK.
“They are the main beneficiaries of Kiev’s terrorism,” she said, adding that she would be raising the assassination during the Dec. 20 meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
The suspect allegedly said he had come to Moscow at the orders of Ukraine’s intelligence services. AP
The suspect claimed that Ukraine had offered him $100,000 and residency in a European country. AFP via Getty Images
Workers load a body of Lt. General Igor Kirillov in nto a bus after he and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov were killed by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment’s block in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. APThe explosion left the snowy sidewalk outside Krillov’s apartment stained in blood.
Windows and doors on his building were destroyed, and its façade was scorched.
Krillov was the highest-ranking Russian official to be killed in the war, which began in February 2022.
Ukraine called him a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target,” and says it has documented at least 4,800 incidents of Russia using chemical weapons during the war.
The US State Department also says it has recorded Russia using chloropicrin — a chemical weapon used in World War I – against Ukrainian soldiers.
