Suspect in killing of Russian general claims he was paid by Ukraine: Russia

Russian authorities said on Sunday the suspect in the killing of a Russian general in a car bomb explosion claimed he was paid by the Ukrainian Security Service as he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

The Investigative Committee said that Ignat Kuzin admitted he was paid to kill Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff of the Russian armed forces.

Moskalik was killed Friday by an explosive device placed in his car in Balashikha, just outside Moscow. 

Ukrainian authorities did not comment on the attack, the second in four months targeting a top Russian military officer that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed on December 17, 2024, when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office. Ukraine's security agency acknowledged it was behind the attack. 

Kirillov was the chief of Russia's Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, the special troops tasked with protecting the military from the enemy's use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment. Kirillov's assistant also died in the attack.