Suspect in killing of Russian general pleads guilty and claims he was paid by Ukraine, Russia says

MOSCOW (AP) — A man suspected of killing a Russian general with a car bomb pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and said he was paid by the Ukrainian Security Service, Russian authorities said Sunday.

The Investigative Committee said 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 a bomb 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 amid the conflict between the neighboring countries.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed on Dec. 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.

Kirillov was under sanctions from several countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada, for his actions in the fighting in Ukraine.