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Ukraine-hired ‘assassin’ accused of planting e-scooter bomb that killed Putin’s top nuke general is arrested by Kremlin
Ukraine caught the assassination on video
RUSSIA has accused an Uzbek man of being the Ukraine-hired assassin who planted an e-scooter bomb that killed a top general.
Vladimir Putin's investigators said Akhmad Kurbanov, 29, confessed to planting the explosive on behalf of Ukraine's spies.
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General Igor Kirillov, 54, was killed after a bomb in his electric scooter blew him up outside his Moscow apartment.
Dramatic footage shows the moment the device detonated just seconds after the general and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov left his home.
Some 200g of TNT stuck to the scooter is believed to have been detonated remotely.
The FSB claims Kurbanov was offered $100,000 and European passports to carry out the assassination by Kyiv.
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Russia's Investigative Committee said the suspect had told them during questioning that he had come to Moscow where he had received an improvised explosive device for the hit.
He is accused of triggering the explosion from his home in Moscow as his taskmasters watched from Ukraine on a live feed from a camera hidden in a car at the scene.
An FSB statement read: “During interrogation, he explained that he had been recruited by the Ukrainian special services.
“On their instructions, he arrived in Moscow and received an improvised explosive device.
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“He placed it on an electric scooter, which he parked at the entrance of the apartment block where Igor Kirillov lived.
“In order to monitor the serviceman's residence, he rented a carsharing vehicle, where he installed a video surveillance camera.
Watch dramatic moment huge car bomb blows up Putin's notorious prison torturer in daring 'Ukrainian assassination'
“The footage from this camera was broadcast online to the organisers of the terrorist attack in the city of Dnipro.
“After the video signal of the servicemen leaving the entrance, the explosive device was remotely detonated by him.”
The detained suspect’s identity was found in a joint operation by the FSB [Federal Security Service], the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
“Ukrainian special services officers involved in the organisation of the terrorist act will be found and punished,” vowed the security agency.
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A second man was also detained, who allegedly parked the car.
“The suspects were traced from the crime scene, where surveillance cameras recorded two suspicious cars,” reported Kommersant newspaper.
"The organisers contacted the men via instant messengers and gave them the contacts of [an agent] from the SBU [Ukraine’s security service]."
One of the detainees was allegedly used “blindly”, unaware that he was involved in a Ukrainian plot to assassinate one of Vladimir Putin’s most prominent generals, reported Mash.
Kommersant said: “The crime was essentially solved quickly, the source stated.
“Official statements regarding the terrorist attack have yet to be made.”
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The main suspect was detained in the village of Chernoye in the Balashikha district of the Moscow region.
Flowers were today left at the scene of the bombing in tribute to the dead general and his aide.
The SBU insisted Kirillov was a legitimate target, accusing him of masterminding the use of banned chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops.
The army chief's death, who was in charge of radiation, chemical and biological defence troops came a day after he was charged with war crimes by Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelensky's office later denied Ukrainian involvement in Kirillov's death.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian president's office, said: "Ukraine does not use methods of terrorist formats.
Who is Putin's 'Radioactive Man' Igor Kirillov?
NOTORIOUS Russian general Igor Kirillov is the most senior Russian military officer to be assassinated inside Russia by Ukraine in the latest humiliating blow for Putin.
Dubbed Putin's radioactive man, Kirillov was yesterday charged with masterminding the use of banned chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers.
Charging him in absentia with war crimes, the Ukrainian SBU said he was responsible for more than 4,800 documented cases of Russian troops using chemical munitions since the start of the war.
Kyiv accused the lieutenant general of directing the use of K-1 grenades loaded with banned irritant agents, CS and CN.
Unsuspecting Ukrainian soldiers were forced out of trenches and into direct fire when they were deployed by FPV drones.
At least 2,000 of Kyiv's troops have been hospitalised since the start of the war as a result, the SBU said.
Kirillov was appointed as Putin's Chief of the Russian Armed Forces' Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defence Troops in 2017.
Born in July 1970 in riverside city Kostroma, Kirillov went on to attend Kostroma Higher Military Command School of Chemical Defence.
He served as a platoon commander in the Western Group of Forces in Germany and the Moscow Military District.
After graduating, he held several posts in Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical defence forces - becoming the chief in 2017.
Kirillov notoriously helped develop the TOS-2 Tosochka heavy flamethrower system.
In October, he was sanctioned by the UK for using riot control agents in Ukraine after multiple reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin during the war.
The UK government said Kirillov was "responsible for helping deploy these barbaric weapons".
It also accused the general of being "a significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation, spreading lies to mask Russia’s shameful and dangerous behaviour".
He famously accused American biolabs in Ukraine of developing drones containing thousands of mosquitoes carrying infectious diseases.
The war criminal alleged there were plans to deploy the drones to infect Russian troops - and ultimately kill them.
"We have all the events on the battlefield. We have decisions on this or that general that are made on the battlefield.
"Kirillov was a big whistleblower. Perhaps it's an internal showdown - went where he didn't need to go, found out what he didn't need to find out."
In the wake of the general's death, Russia vowed to revenge the killing with ex-president Dmitry Medvedev vowing the “imminent retribution” for the perpetrators “including the top military and political leadership of the disappearing country [Ukraine].”
He said: “Our colleague and comrade Lt-Gen Igor Kirillov was killed in a terrorist attack.
“He was a military commander, devoted to his duty and his oath.
“All of us here at this table knew him as a very good professional and as a decent and responsible person.
“Despite the fact that the investigation has just begun, our enemies have already rushed to publish information about their involvement.
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“But in any case, law enforcement agencies must find the killers in Russia.
“And everything must be done to destroy those who ordered it who are in Kyiv.
“These customers are also known, they are the military-political leadership of Ukraine…..
“The work of the defence industry must in no way be relaxed.”
While Putin added: “Naturally, everyone deeply sympathises, the President sympathises, in this regard.
“But in this case, our special services, law enforcement agencies, you see, they work efficiently, they work quickly.
“It is now obvious who are the customers and who are the organisers of this terrorist act.
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“Well, it is once again confirmed that the Kyiv regime does not shy away from terrorist methods of work.
“We clearly understand who our enemy is and what he is capable of.”
Ukrainian 'assassinations'
RUSSIA has claimed that Ukraine has carried out a series of targeted assassinations since the beginning of the war in February 2022.
Darya Dugina, 30, the daughter of Alexander Dugin, dubbed "Putin's Rasputin" was killed in a car bomb attack.
Putin's "spiritual mastermind" switched cars last minute and survived the blast.
In 2023 military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in a bombing attack in a café in central St Petersburg.
Another 30 people were injured in the attack.
Daria Trepova, 26, who reportedly handed him a gold TNT-laden figurine of himself. faces 20 years behind bars.
Naval captain Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was shot dead after a hitman tracked him down using a popular fitness app
He was jogging through the Russian city of Krasnodar when he was gunned down.
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