MOSCOW – Russia announced on Wednesday that it had detained an Uzbek man who confessed to planting and detonating a bomb that killed top commander Igor Kirillov in Moscow on the instructions of Ukraine's SBU Security Service.
Kirillov, the head of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed along with his assistant outside his apartment on Tuesday when a bomb hidden in his electric scooter exploded.
He is the most senior Russian military officer assassinated in Russia by Ukraine.
Ukraine's SBU intelligence service took responsibility for the killing after it accused Kirillov of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces, a charge the Russian government denies.
The Russian Investigative Committee, which investigates serious crimes, said in a statement on Wednesday that the unnamed suspect had said he had come to Moscow to carry out a mission for Ukrainian intelligence services.
A video released by the Baza news agency, which is known to have sources in Russian law enforcement, shows the suspect sitting in a van and explaining his actions.
It was unclear under what circumstances he was speaking, and Reuters could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the video.
The suspect, wearing a winter coat, is seen saying he came to Moscow on orders from Ukrainian intelligence services, bought an electric scooter and received an improvised explosive device.
He explains that he installed the device on an electric scooter parked outside the entrance to the apartment complex where Kirillov lived.
Investigators cited the suspect as saying that he had installed a surveillance camera in his rental car, which was monitored by those who organized the killing in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk.
The suspect, who is believed to have been born in 1995, is seen saying he detonated the device remotely when Kirillov left the building.
He said Ukraine offered him $100,000 and residency in the European country.
Investigators said they were identifying other people involved, and the Kommersant daily reported that another suspect had been taken into custody. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
Moscow to bring case to UN Security Council
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Russian government would take up the assassination at the UN Security Council on December 20.
All those involved in the killing will be found and punished, and Moscow will not be intimidated, she said.
“It turns out that the Kiev regime has once again taken responsibility for a new terrorist attack. All these SBU losers and the crazy Kiev regime are all tools controlled by the Anglo-Saxons,” Zakharova said, adding that Russia is the US he said, using the term used to describe the United Kingdom.
“They are the main beneficiaries of the Kiev terrorism.”
The U.S. State Department said Tuesday that Washington had no involvement or prior knowledge of the killing.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Mr Kirillov had “spread illegal aggression and imposed suffering and death on the Ukrainian people”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not publicly commented on the killing, saying Russia's actions in Ukraine are aimed at protecting Russia's security against NATO expansion.
The Russian government claims that Ukraine is responsible for a series of murders in the country.
Ukraine claims that Russia's war against Russia poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state, and such orders are aimed at weakening morale and punishing those Kiev deems committing war crimes. He made it clear that he believed the killing was legal.
Victims of such attacks include Russian nationalist ideologue and pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and Darya Dugina, the daughter of a Russian submarine commander.
