Moscow: Russia announced on Wednesday that it had arrested an Uzbek national who confessed to planting and detonating a bomb that killed Russian General Igor Kirillov in Moscow, claiming he did so under orders from Ukraine's SBU intelligence service. Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed on Tuesday when an explosive device hidden in an electric scooter detonated outside his apartment building, also killing his assistant.

This marks the highest-ranking Russian military officer to be assassinated on Russian soil in connection with the conflict with Ukraine. The SBU later took responsibility for the attack, citing Kirillov's alleged role in overseeing the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces, a claim that Moscow denies.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles major criminal cases, issued a statement revealing that the detained suspect admitted to being sent to Moscow to carry out the operation on behalf of Ukraine's intelligence services. In a video released by Baza, a news outlet with ties to Russian law enforcement, the suspect is shown in a van recounting the details of the mission. The circumstances of the video’s recording were unclear, and its authenticity could not be independently verified by Reuters.

In the video, the suspect, dressed in a winter coat, explains that he traveled to Moscow at the direction of Ukraine's intelligence agency, where he purchased an electric scooter and received an improvised explosive device. He describes positioning the bomb on the scooter and leaving it outside the building where Kirillov lived. The suspect also claimed to have set up a surveillance camera in a rental car, which was monitored remotely from Dnipro, Ukraine, by those who coordinated the attack. He stated that he remotely detonated the bomb when Kirillov exited the building and said Ukraine had promised him $100,000 and residency in a European country in exchange for carrying out the attack.

Russian investigators have indicated that they are working to identify other individuals involved in the operation. The daily Kommersant reported that another suspect had been detained, although this could not be independently confirmed by Reuters.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, announced that Moscow would address the assassination at the upcoming United Nations Security Council session on December 20. She vowed that all those responsible for the killing would be apprehended and punished, and emphasized that Russia would not be intimidated by such acts. Zakharova accused the Ukrainian government of once again being behind a “terrorist attack,” calling the SBU and the Ukrainian regime “tools managed by the Anglo-Saxons,” a term Russia uses to refer to the United States and the UK. She claimed that these nations were the primary beneficiaries of Ukraine’s alleged terrorism.

In response to the incident, the U.S. State Department stated that Washington had no involvement in or prior knowledge of the attack. A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer remarked that Kirillov had been responsible for "propagating an illegal invasion" and causing "suffering and death" for the Ukrainian people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who frames Russia's actions in Ukraine as a defense against NATO expansion, has yet to publicly comment on the assassination. Dmitry Peskov, his spokesperson, praised Russia's intelligence agencies for their swift investigation and accused Ukraine of employing "terrorist methods."

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev criticized an editorial in The Times of London, which referred to the killing as "a legitimate act of defense by a threatened nation." He argued that this logic would justify targeting Western officials who supply military aid to Ukraine, painting them as legitimate targets for Russia.

Moscow continues to hold Ukraine responsible for a series of attacks within its borders, while Kyiv views such strikes as part of a broader strategy to weaken Russian morale and punish those it deems responsible for war crimes. Ukraine maintains that Russia's ongoing war poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state and asserts that actions like these are legitimate in the context of the conflict.