Surveillance Footage Captures Assassination of Ukrainian Intelligence Officer in Kyiv

A senior Ukrainian intelligence officer was gunned down in a targeted daylight attack in central Kyiv on Wednesday morning, in what officials and sources describe as a high-level assassination.

Colonel Ivan Voronich, a senior operations officer in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was fatally shot around 9:00 a.m. on July 10 in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, according to multiple sources, including former Ukrainian MP Ihor Mosiychuk.

The attacker, reportedly using a pistol equipped with a suppressor, approached Colonel Voronich and fired five rounds at close range before fleeing the scene. The victim, born in July 1974, died instantly from multiple gunshot wounds.

“An unknown assailant walked up to Colonel Ivan Voronich and fired five well-aimed shots at point-blank range,” Mosiychuk wrote on his Telegram channel. “The officer died on the spot due to penetrating gunshot injuries.”

The Ukrainian police initially reported a fatal shooting in the district without disclosing the victim’s identity. Confirmation of Voronich’s death came later from former Special Operations Forces commander Roman Chervinskyi, who described the killing as a “devastating loss” for Ukraine’s security services.

Voronich had reportedly been serving as Chief Operations Officer in the 1st Division of Directorate 16, part of Ukraine’s Special Operations Center, since November 2024. His role, according to security analysts, would have involved high-level intelligence missions amid Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia.

The incident comes at a time of heightened internal and cross-border tensions, with Ukrainian and Russian intelligence operations often clashing both physically and digitally.

In response to the assassination, Kyiv police sealed off the crime scene and launched a city-wide manhunt for the perpetrator. As of Thursday morning, no suspects have been apprehended, and no group has claimed responsibility.

Authorities are reviewing surveillance footage and gathering eyewitness testimony to reconstruct the events leading up to the killing. Speculation is already mounting over whether the assassination was part of a broader intelligence conflict.

The Ukrainian government has not yet issued an official statement, though internal sources suggest the SBU and military intelligence are conducting parallel investigations.

This is one of the most high-profile targeted killings in Kyiv in recent months, raising questions about security protocols for senior intelligence personnel in the capital.