Moscow [Russia], December 19 : Russian authorities arrested a suspect over the killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his aide in a bomb blast in Moscow, Al Jazeera reported.
The Investigative Committee said in a statement on Wednesday that an Uzbekistan national was arrested on suspicion of having attacking Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov on Tuesday morning, as per Al Jazeera.
The statement added that the 29-year-old suspect said he had been "recruited by Ukrainian special forces".
Kirillov, 54, was the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops since 2017. He was killed outside an apartment building when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off, a statement added.
The bomb was triggered remotely, according to Russian reports. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork, Al Jazeera reported.
A source in the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, confirmed to Al Jazeera on Tuesday the agency was behind the attack. Ukraine has yet to officially comment on the incident.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in its footage of the interrogation of the suspect said that he faces "a sentence of up to life imprisonment". The agency said he had been promised a reward of USD 1,00,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov, as per Al Jazeera.
In its first comments about the incident, the Kremlin on Wednesday accused Ukraine of committing a "terrorist attack". "It is once again confirmed that the Kyiv regime does not shy away from terrorist methods," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, Al Jazeera reported.
Lieutenant General Kirillov, who headed Russia's radiological, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a remotely detonated bomb planted in an electric scooter outside an apartment building approximately 7km (4 miles) southeast of the Kremlin, according to Russia's Investigative Committee.
The blast came a day after Ukrainian prosecutors sentenced Kirillov in absentia for Russia's use of banned chemical weapons during its invasion.
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