Russia: Uzbek man detained on suspicion of general's murder in Moscow

Russian authorities reported that they have detained an Uzbek as a suspect in the Moscow murder of the head of the military’s chemical weapons division, Russian authorities said.

"A citizen of Uzbekistan born in 1995 was detained on suspicion of having committed [Tuesday] the attack that claimed the lives of the commander of the Russian radiological, chemical and biological defense forces, Igor Kirilov, and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov," the Russian Investigative Committee said.

The committee explained that the suspect allegedly claimed during interrogation to have been recruited by Ukraine. The statement detailed that the subject arrived in Moscow and was handed an explosive device that he placed on an electric scooter parked near the door of the building where General Kirillov lived.

The senior Russian military officer was killed in an explosion Tuesday morning near a residential property in southeastern Moscow, the Russian Investigative Committee, in charge of major cases in the country, announced in a statement reported by AFP.

"An explosive device placed on a scooter parked near the entrance of residential real estate was activated on December 17 in the early morning hours on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow," the committee said in the statement.

"The commander of the Russian radiological, chemical and biological defense forces, Igor Kirillov, and his deputy were killed," added the statement reported by Russian state media.

Hours after the incident, the Ukrainian security services (SBU) claimed the assassination of senior Russian military officer Igor Kirillov.

"Today's bomb attack on Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, commander of the radiological, chemical and biological defense forces of the Russian armed forces,was a special operation of the SBU," said a Ukrainian security services source accessed by AFP.

Kirillov's killing comes after the Ukrainian prosecutor's office accused the commander of using chemical weapons banned in Ukraine, The Kyiv Post highlights.

In this regard, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Kirillov in October this year for the transfer and use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. The U.S. and U.K. then accused Russia of using the toxic agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.