An Uzbek man detained by Russia’s domestic intelligence service FSB has admitted that he was recruited by Ukraine to kill Igor Kirillov, the Russian general killed in a bombing in Moscow, the FSB said on Wednesday.
The suspect had admitted that he had been recruited by the Ukrainian intelligence service SBU and supplied with explosives by the SBU, the FSB said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised the progress made by investigators. “Not much time has passed, but a lot is already known,” he said, according to a report by state news agency TASS.
Peskov attributed the murder to Ukraine. “We know who ordered this terrorist attack. We are fighting this Nazi regime and will continue the fight,” he said, using terms often used by Russian politicians to describe the Ukrainian government.
The attack on Kirillov showed that Russia was justified in its “special military operation” in Ukraine, he said. There was no evidence of involvement by other countries, Peskov said.
Asked whether Russian military leaders needed better protection, he replied: “A terrorist attack is a terrorist attack.”
Kirillov, a lieutenant general and head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces (NBC), was responsible for protecting against threats from nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
He was killed by an explosive device on Tuesday morning as he left his apartment building in Moscow. His assistant was also killed in the explosion.
Russian investigators called the killing a terrorist attack and immediately attributed it to Ukrainian intelligence.
In Kiev, the SBU announced through unofficial channels that it was actually behind the murder. Kirillov had been formally charged with war crimes in Ukraine the day before he died.
According to the FSB, the suspect had installed a small, wirelessly connected camera in his car, which was parked outside Kirillov’s building. This allowed the SBU to monitor Kirillov’s movements, the FSB said.
SBU officers then detonated the explosive in an electric scooter. They had promised the suspect $100,000 and that they would take him from Russia to a European Union country, the FSB said.
While a number of killings of Russian officials have been attributed to agents of the Ukrainian government, the killing of a general in Moscow and the act being acknowledged is unusual.
The SBU says North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in Kursk
The SBU said on Wednesday that North Korean troops fighting alongside the Russian army to reclaim the Ukrainian-occupied Kursk region are suffering heavy losses.
Citing wiretapped telephone conversations, the report said that within a few days, more than 200 injured North Koreans were admitted to a hospital near Moscow.
There have been complaints that the foreign troops are receiving preferential treatment at the hospital, the SBU added.
The SBU information could not be independently verified.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the US State Department, said: “We have seen North Korean soldiers deployed to the front lines in Kursk, and we have seen them suffer casualties, both killed in action. and injured.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken in recent days about the heavy losses among North Korean soldiers and accused Russia of cremating dead soldiers to conceal the death toll.
Zelenskiy has also criticized Kiev’s allies for failing to respond to the deployment of North Korean troops in the war.
Miller warned that if North Korean soldiers crossed the border into Ukraine, it would be seen as “another escalation” by Russia.
As part of its military cooperation with Moscow, North Korea is said to have not only supplied Russia with artillery, ammunition and missiles, but also sent more than 10,000 soldiers to the war zone.
