Moscow, Dec 19, (V7N) - Russia announced on Wednesday that it had detained an Uzbek citizen who confessed to planting and detonating the bomb that killed Lt. General Igor Kirillov in Moscow the day before. Kirillov, the chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed in a bombing outside his apartment building, along with his assistant, when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter exploded.

According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, the detained suspect, whose identity remains undisclosed, admitted to carrying out the attack on the orders of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU). The SBU took responsibility for the assassination, accusing Kirillov of being involved in the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces—an allegation Moscow denies.

The suspect's confession was captured in a video published by the Baza news outlet, which often has connections within Russian law enforcement. In the video, the suspect, who is dressed in a winter coat and appears to be seated in a van, describes how he traveled to Moscow months prior to carry out the attack. He claims that he bought an electric scooter and later received an improvised explosive device (IED) from Ukrainian intelligence operatives to plant on the scooter.

The suspect explained that he had parked the scooter outside Kirillov’s apartment building, where it remained until the bomb was detonated remotely as Kirillov left the building. He also revealed that a surveillance camera had been set up in a hire car nearby, allowing the organizers of the assassination, based in Dnipro, Ukraine, to monitor Kirillov’s movements.

According to the confession, the suspect was promised $100,000 for his role in the assassination and the offer of residency in a European country. Russian investigators are continuing their efforts to identify other individuals involved in the plot, with some reports suggesting that another suspect has been detained in connection with the attack.

Kirillov's death marks the highest-ranking Russian military officer to be killed within Russia itself by Ukrainian forces, adding to the ongoing tensions between the two nations amid the ongoing conflict.

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