Suspect in Russian general’s murder recruited by Kiev – officials

Russian authorities have detained a suspect in connection with the assassination of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, the national Investigative Committee announced on Wednesday morning.

Kirillov, 54, and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, were killed early on December 17 when a remotely detonated improvised explosive device (IED) exploded outside a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue in southeastern Moscow. The device, packed with approximately 300 grams of TNT, was attached to an electric scooter near the building’s entrance.

According to investigators, the suspect was detained in Moscow Region and is a citizen of Uzbekistan who was born in 1995. A report indicates that he was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence and traveled to Moscow to carry out the attack. The suspect received a homemade explosive device, which he placed on a scooter which he parked near the general’s residence, investigators claim. To monitor the area, he rented a car equipped with a surveillance camera, transmitting live footage back to the organizers in Dnepr, Ukraine.

After receiving the video signal of the officers exiting the building, the explosive device was remotely activated. The investigation revealed that the assailant had been promised a reward of $100,000 and relocation to a European country upon successful completion of the mission.

The explosion occurred on Tuesday around 6:00am as Kirillov and his aide exited the building.

Kirillov commanded the Russian military branch responsible for protecting troops and civilians from chemical and biological weapons, as well as radioactive fallout from nuclear strikes or ‘dirty bomb’ attacks. He was appointed in 2017 and delivered over 40 briefings on the findings of specialists under his command.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, a significant portion of Kirillov’s reports focused on this issue. His briefings included allegations of the use of chemical agents by Ukrainian forces on the battlefield and warnings about potential provocations by Kiev.

Kirillov also addressed concerns regarding US-backed microbiological laboratories, which have drawn significant attention from Russia and other nations. The US government claims that activities funded by the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency aim to detect naturally occurring threats. However, critics argue that these programs have more suspicious intentions.

In October 2024, the UK imposed sanctions on Kirillov after he accused Ukraine of planning a false-flag chemical weapons attack designed to frame Russia and undermine its standing at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He claimed that NATO had supplied Ukraine with an excessive amount of chemical protective equipment, which he considered indicative of an imminent threat.