Russia reports arrest of suspect in Gen. Kirillov’s murder

Source: Russian Investigative Committee 

Russian officials said they have nabbed  a suspect in the murder of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his aide, Ilya Polikarpov killed on Monday when a bomb went off near his residence in Moscow. The suspect is identified as a citizen of Uzbekistan.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, the 29-year-old suspect claimed he had been “recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.”

“Following their instructions, he arrived in Moscow and obtained a homemade explosive device. He placed it on an electric scooter parked near the entrance of the residential building where Igor Kirillov lived,” the statement said.

The Investigative Committee found that the suspect had rented a car-sharing vehicle to monitor Kirillov’s residence. Equipped with a surveillance camera, it livestreamed the explosion

“After receiving the live feed showing the military personnel exiting the building, the explosive device was remotely detonated by the handlers,” the statement added.

The Committee’s report claimed that the suspect was allegedly promised $100,000 and permanent residency in a European country in exchange for completing the dirty job.

In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.

During the GLOBSEC Defence Forum 2026 in Prague, representatives of “Steel Front”, an initiative by Rinat Akhmetov, discussed with NATO delegations, military officials, and representatives of the European defense industry the lessons learned from Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

After the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine witnessed an unprecedented wave of private support for the army. Citizens, big businesses, charitable foundations, and international philanthropists began financing the country’s defense alongside state assistance provided by international partners. Estimates of total private contributions range from tens to hundreds of billions of hryvnias. However, determining the exact amount remains difficult. In many cases, companies combine military aid, humanitarian programs, tax payments, social spending, and employee support in their reporting.

Rinat Akhmetov’s military initiative, “Steel Front”, has delivered a batch of drones worth UAH 214 million to the 1st “Azov” Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine. This shipment is part of the Metinvest Group’s ongoing support for the unit in 2025.

On October 6, the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court of Ukraine continued hearing case No. 990/80/25, in which the fifth President and leader of the party “European Solidarity”, Petro Poroshenko, seeks to have Presidential Decree No. 81/2025 from February 12, 2025 — enacting sanctions by the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) — declared illegal and annulled. The plaintiff claims the document was falsified and that the sanctions are a tool of political persecution of the opposition, contrary to international norms. Government representatives deny the allegations and insist their actions were lawful. Journalists of Bukvy were present at the hearing.