Moscow, Dec 18: Russia’s security service said Wednesday that it has detained a suspect in the killing of a senior general in Moscow.
The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service levelled criminal charges against him. His assistant also died in the attack.
A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, didn’t name the suspect, but said he was born in 1995.
According to a statement by the FSB, the suspect said himself that he was recruited by Ukrainian special services.
The FSB said the suspect had been promised a reward of USD 100,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.
The agency stated that acting on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect travelled to Moscow, where he picked up a homemade explosive device. He placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance to the residential building where Kirillov lived.
The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that livestreamed the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Once Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.
The suspect faces a sentence of up to life imprisonment, the FSB said.
The suspect was detained in a village in the Moscow region, according to Ministry of Internal Affairs official Irina Volk, who was quoted by Russian state news agency TASS. (AP)
