 "CCTV footage shows the SBU officer walking down the stairs moments before he was shot in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 10. Ukrainska Pravda/Reuters")
As the Russia-Ukraine war continues to escalate, the Ukrainian Security Service said on Sunday that it had killed Russian special service agents suspected of killing an intelligence officer in Kyiv earlier this week. The news of the agents came days after Ukraine said that it believed Russia’s Federal Security Service was responsible for the attack.
On Thursday morning, SBU officer Ivan Voronych was shot dead in Kyiv in what Ukrainian authorities claimed was an apparent case of assassination. In the statement released on Sunday, the SBU maintained that the suspects, a man and a woman, tried to “lay low” after the shooting incident.
However, the SBU and the Ukrainian National Police officers managed to establish their whereabouts in the Kyiv region. “As a result of covert investigative and active counterintelligence measures, the enemy’s lair was discovered," the head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, said in the statement.
Why were they killed and not captured?
In the same statement, Malyuk mentioned that both the Russian agents were resisting arrest, hence that measure had to be taken. “During their arrest, they began to resist, there was an exchange of fire, and the scoundrels were eliminated,” he said.
“I want to remind you that the only prospect for the enemy on the territory of Ukraine is death!” the Ukrainian officer said in a separate video, which was apparently filmed in front of the suspect’s bodies. The SBU noted that the two agents were ordered to trail their target to establish a daily routine.
They were then directed to a safe house where they received a pistol with a silencer. It is pertinent to note that the SBU is Ukraine’s main security service, responsible for both internal security and sabotage operations against Russia.
Interestingly, the Ukrainian security agency was also responsible for the audacious drone attack against Russian airfields last month, under Operation Spider Web . Voronych’s killing comes at a time when Russia has been escalating its attacks on Ukraine. Last week, the war-torn nation saw both the largest and the second-largest Russian drone attack on its territory as the war now enters its fourth year.