Intel With The Rank Of Colonel Died In The Shooting In The Housing Parking Area

Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Tony Webster)

JAKARTA - Senior officer with the rank of colonel who served in intelligence services was killed in Thursday's shooting, while the culprit managed to escape.

The shooting took place in a residential parking area in Kyiv, Ukraine in broad daylight, while the perpetrator managed to escape on foot, according to authorities and video footage verified by Reuters.

The Kyiv police said they were trying to identify the shooter and "steps are being taken to detain him", reported by Reuters July 11.

CCTV footage circulating on Ukrainian social media showed a man in jeans leaving an apartment building and walking towards the parking lot. There, he was approached by another man who opened fire on him repeatedly before fleeing.

Reuters managed to confirm the location of the video suspected of being the murder in a settlement in Kyiv, based on checkpoints, buildings, and parking area layouts, which matched the satellite files and images in the area.

The date of video recording is verified based on the time stamp on the Reuters record and report on the incident.

An official said senior agent killed in the shooting was a colonel who served in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).

Meanwhile, SBU, a domestic intelligence agency with thousands of staff, said it had opened a criminal investigation into the murder of one of its agents in Holosiivskyi District, Kyiv, south, although it did not provide further identification.

Neither SBU nor the police mentioned the possible motive for the murder in Kyiv.

"The National Police and Security Agency are taking a comprehensive series of steps to clarify all circumstances of crime and bring the perpetrators to justice," SBU said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian media, Ukrainska Pravda quoted a source as saying the attacker fired five bullets from a gun. The media identified the victim as Ivan Voronych, a SBU colonel.

It is known that the SBU's authority includes security and counterintelligence, but since the 2022 Russian invasion. The agency has also played an important role in special operations against Moscow, including assassinations and sabotage attacks.

This includes an extraordinary drone operation with the codename "Spider Network" targeting Russian strategic aircraft at bases hundreds of miles from Ukraine, and the assassination of a top Russian general in Moscow using a bomb hidden inside a scooter.

Separately, a number of pro-Kremlin military bloggers cheered over the colonel's death. Alexander Kots, a Russian war correspondent, said he hoped Russia's security service would be behind the colonel's death.

"The enemy must feel afraid in his own territory," he said.

Meanwhile, Russian officials have not publicly commented.