Ukraine Kills Russian Agent Suspected Of Killing SBU Intel Colonel Last Week

Illustration of arrest by Ukrainian SBU. (Wikimedia Commons/Security Service of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Ukrainian intelligence agencies on Sunday killed a cell member of Russia's wanted secret service on suspicion of shooting dead a colonel at the Ukrainian SBU security service last week, the agency said.

The intelligence agency said in a statement the operation was aimed at arresting agents of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), believed to be behind the assassination of SBU Colonel Ivan Voronych in Kyiv on Thursday.

"This morning a special operation was carried out, in which members of the cells of the Russian FSB agents began to fight back, and therefore they were disbanded," the Telegram messaging app said.

Russian authorities did not immediately provide public comment on Sunday's operations, reflecting the assassination of senior Russian military officials by Ukraine in the past during the three-year war, a source of shame for Moscow's large intelligence agency.

SBU said two men and a woman were suspected of having killed Voronych. It did not say how many suspected FSB agents died on Sunday.

According to SBU, the killer suspects were ordered by their handlers to monitor the targets and track their movements. They were finally given the coordinates of the hiding place where they found a damped gun, said SBU.

It said the suspects had tried to "hidden" after Thursday's murder, but were tracked down by SBU and Ukrainian police.

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