When Russia kills Ukrainian heroes, Ukraine doesn’t forgive. The intelligence war between Ukraine and Russia won’t end with the hot phase of the war. It will continue in the shadows, in hotel hallways, parking lots, and spy offices across the globe, The Times reports.
The Ukrainian colonel of the Security Service (SBU), Ivan Voronych, who was assassinated in Kyiv, may have been targeted by Russian intelligence for his role in some of Ukraine’s boldest covert operations in recent years, say intelligence sources.
On 10 July, FSB agents executed the colonel in broad daylight, when five precise shots from a pistol struck him on a Kyiv street. Just three days later, Ukrainian special services eliminated the perpetrators. It was a swift and targeted response.
Voronych was involved in big numer of operations, including the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Major General Viktor Yahun says the upcoming retaliation from the Ukrainian side will be compared to the Operation Spiderweb, when Kyiv hit 41 Russian aircraft.
Voronych served as a deputy in the unit commanded by Roman Chervinsky, the same figure The Washington Post described as the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream attack. He also oversaw naval drone strikes against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The SBU colonel was a calm and quiet man who kept himself in excellent physical shape, his colleagues recall. He had served in the elite Alpha unit and carried out missions deep behind enemy lines, including in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
Some sources claim it was Voronych who initiated the ambush and elimination of Oleksiy Mozgovoy in 2015, the leader of the “Prizrak” group and one of the key commanders of Russian proxy forces in Donbas.
Any one of these actions could have sealed his fate, and, according to intelligence sources, his assassination in Kyiv was the direct result of a long list of high-risk operations where Voronych played a pivotal role.
Ukraine has already avenged his murder by eliminating the killers, but that’s just the beginning. Former SBU officer Ivan Stupak says that such assassinations will continue worldwide for many years. Ukrainians won’t want to operate on allied territory, but perhaps in Thailand, Africa.
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They set out believing Russian aggression didn’t exist. Then they saw missiles and mass graves.Three Czech conspiracy theorists who had publicly questioned the scale and even the existence of Russia’s war traveled to Ukraine as part of a documentary project, according to Gromada.cz.
What began as a skeptical “fact-finding mission” became a confrontation with a reality they could no longer deny. The resulting film, Velký vlastenecký výlet or The Great ‘Patriotic’ Trip, will premiere on 21 August.
The participants, two men and one woman, had openly supported the Kremlin’s position, calling the invasion a “special operation,” spreading disinformation about a media conspiracy, disputing casualty numbers, and blaming everything from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to liberals and even the EU’s Green Deal.
They responded to an open call by Czech director Robin Kvapil themselves, who used social media to invite skeptics to witness the war firsthand. The film crew accompanied them from Prague to Kharkiv and Donbas, capturing their raw reactions as they came under missile fire, met wounded civilians, visited mass graves, and descended into underground schools in metro stations where children study amid constant danger.
Kvapil said one of the defining moments came when they arrived at the site of a children’s oncology hospital in Kyiv just hours after a Russian missile had struck it. This scene further solidified his intent to confront denial with unfiltered truth.
The team also included security analyst Petr Pojman, psychiatrist Petr Piot, and interpreter Lucie Řehořiková, former head of the Czech Centre in Kyiv, to ensure security and mental support. The production was coordinated with the Czech Interior Ministry and Ukraine’s Security Service.
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A Ukrainian soldier could have gone on a date after meeting someone on Telegram. But before the meeting, he was asked to do a “small favor,” which could have turned deadly if not for law enforcement.
Russia has expanded its hybrid operations amid the war. It is creating new units for information and psychological sabotage, spreading fake news and intimidation, carrying out cyberattacks and sabotage with booby-trapped gifts, and orchestrating assassination attempts against military personnel and leaders via social networks.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), together with the National Police, thwarted a terrorist attack planned by an FSB agent network. One of the plots involved a fake “romantic date” in Dnipro.
A pair of Russian agents gained the trust of the Ukrainian soldier. Through Telegram, they suggested he meet with the “sister of a fellow soldier.”Before the date, the girl asked him to pick up her brother’s belongings from her friend.
“In reality, it was an accomplice who handed the soldier a bag containing explosives,” the SBU reported.
Afterward, Russian agents tried to detonate the device remotely, but it was defused in time.
It was just one of at least five terrorist attacks planned by them inside Ukraine.
In Kyiv, two drug addicts tried to plant explosives near a military facility. They were coordinated from a detention center by an inmate who recruited his cellmate and two more accomplices.
In Vinnytsia, a 19-year-old individual from Zhytomyr Oblast was detained while planting explosives near an apartment building housing military families.
In Rivne, a terrorist hid explosives inside a soldier’s service vehicle and installed a surveillance camera.
Russian intelligence recruited all perpetrators via Telegram channels advertising “easy money.” According to the SBU, each attack attempt came with promises of financial reward.
All suspects have been charged with state treason, sabotage, and terrorism. They face life imprisonment and confiscation of property.
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Ukraine has charged three Russian commanders suspected of ordering the rocket attack on a residential area of Chernihiv with Grad multiple launch rocket systems in 2022. The attack killed 20 people and wounded 28, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported.
The identification of Russian war criminals is a key tool in holding the guilty accountable and restoring justice. There are also cases when, after the publication of the data on Russian perpetrators, they were eliminated on the battlefield or behind the front lines. For instance, last week, Ukrainian forces eliminated a Russian drone unit responsible for the killing of a one-year-old boy in Kherson Oblast.
The Prosecutor General’s Office, together with the Security Service of Ukraine, has identified Colonel Oleg Kurygin, a commander of the 35th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian 41st Army, as well as two subordinates, Major Ramis Zagretdinov and Captain Timur Suleymanov, who were responsible for battalion tactical groups.
On the morning of 16 March 2022, they ordered a massive strike on the residential area using unguided rockets, despite the absence of any nearby military targets. At that time, civilians were standing near a shop buying groceries.
“Russian military personnel were aware they were using weapons against civilians. This was a deliberate attack on the civilian population,” the Prosecutor General’s Office emphasizes.
Under international law, such actions constitute a war crime. The commanders are charged with violations of the laws of war, combined with the intentional murder of a group of persons by prior conspiracy.
The documentation of war crimes was conducted by the public organizations Truth Hounds and Global Rights Compliance.
According to the investigation, Kurygin personally gave the order to shell using high-explosive fragmentation ammunition, and his unit temporarily controlled the border areas of Chernihiv Oblast in 2022.
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The morning of 10 July started like any other for Colonel Ivan Voronych. Around 8 AM, the veteran Ukrainian Security Service officer stepped out of his apartment building in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, likely heading to another day of what had become Ukraine’s most dangerous work – running covert operations against Russia.
He never made it past the parking lot.
A gunman approached and fired five shots from a silenced pistol. Voronych died instantly from multiple penetrating wounds. The killer vanished in an SUV, leaving behind a crime scene that would send shockwaves through Ukraine’s intelligence community.
According to Roman Chervinskyi, the former intelligence officer who broke the news, this wasn’t random violence. The five point-blank shots, the silenced weapon, the clean escape – everything pointed to a professional hit.
Commander of the gray zone
This wasn’t just another intelligence officer. The New York Times reports that Voronych (also spelled Voronich in some reports) served in the SBU’s elite Alpha Special Operations Center and had spent decades building Ukraine’s most sensitive capabilities against Russia.
His career reads like a spy thriller. Starting in the mid-1990s, Voronych eventually commanded what the NYT describes as “a unit that received technical support from the CIA” and was responsible for eliminating high-level Russian proxy commanders.
This CIA-supported Fifth Directorate eliminated Russian proxy commander Arsen Pavlov (“Motorola”) in Russia’s puppet Donbas “republics” in 2016. His unit played a key role in Ukraine’s August 2024 cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
But the decades between reveal little about his other operations – a silence that speaks to the classified nature of Ukraine’s most sensitive work against Russia.
That moment in 2016
Donbas warlord Motorola killed in Donetsk
After Russia’s full-scale invasion, Voronych became part of what sources call an elite unit operating in the “gray zone” between front lines.
Chervinskyi described Voronich as “one of those who started a direction in the Service that now creates many problems for the orcs” – Ukrainian slang for Russian forces.
An unprecedented target
What makes this killing significant isn’t that it represents some fundamental shift in the shadow war—both sides have been targeting each other’s operatives for years. Ukrainian intelligence has assassinated “dozens” of Russians since the invasion began, reaching deep into Russian territory with car bombs and targeted shootings.
Russia has struck back before. Maksym Shapoval, a key figure in Ukraine’s 2016 Crimea operations, was assassinated in 2017. There was an attempt on current military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov in 2019 and his wife in 2025.
But the targeting of someone like Voronych appears unprecedented in terms of seniority and operational significance since the full-scale war began. This was a decades-long veteran with deep CIA connections who had been instrumental in some of Ukraine’s most sensitive operations against Russia.
The Russian fingerprints
More than 24 hours after the killing, Ukrainian police and the SBU continue investigating, but no suspect has been publicly identified. The silence is telling.
“99%—Russian special services chose him as a target,” he told Espreso TV. “Five bullets with a silencer rules out any possibility this was some personal dispute or neighborly grudge. This was a professional hit.”
The targeting itself suggests serious intelligence penetration. The FSB infiltration of Ukrainian security services is well-documented – this February, SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk personally arrested a high-ranking traitor in the SBU’s Anti-Terrorist Center who had been feeding intelligence to Moscow since 2018.
Russian military bloggers welcomed the killing and suggested Moscow was responsible. The Rybar channel, linked to Russian military intelligence, said there were “plenty of motives for eliminating this SBU employee.”
Update: On 13 July, the suspected killers of Voronych were killed while attempting to escape arrest:
Explore further
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Voronych played key role in Kursk incursion
The timing and target suggest this may be long-delayed payback. Voronych’s involvement in the 2016 Motorola assassination has now been made public through NYT reporting. Pavlov was a beloved figure among Russian-backed forces—his killing was a major psychological blow that Russian commanders never forgot.
Former SBU chief Ivan Bakanov, who knew Voronych personally, told the NYT the implications are stark: “If the motive is a domestic murder—that’s one thing. But if this is a public execution carried out by Russians—that’s a completely different story that requires an immediate response.”
After Russia’s full-scale invasion, Voronich became part of what sources call an elite unit operating in the “gray zone” between front lines. His unit played a key role in Ukraine’s bold August 2024 cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, according to NYT.
Ukraine had managed to divert Russian forces from Pokrovsk with its August 2024 Kursk offensive. Screenshot from Reporting from Ukraine video
The Kursk operation marked a watershed moment in the war. Although the strategic outcomes of the incursion remain debated, it undoubtedly demonstrated to Ukraine’s Western partners that Ukraine has the capability to conduct daring raids and that Russia is not invincible.
Perhaps most importantly, the offensive laid Russia’s nuclear threats bare—showing them to be empty rhetoric designed to manipulate Western support for Ukraine. The operation “succeeded in making a complete mockery of Vladimir Putin’s red lines,” as one analyst put it, yet no nuclear escalation followed. This pattern of nuclear intimidation remains the main constraint on Western support for Ukraine’s victory plans.
Escalation of the shadow war
The assassination doesn’t change the fundamental rules of the shadow war – those have been evolving for years as both sides have escalated their targeting campaigns. But it does represent something significant:
The successful Russian elimination of one of Ukraine’s most experienced covert operators, someone whose institutional knowledge was irreplaceable.
It also raises uncomfortable questions about security. How did assassins penetrate Kyiv’s defenses to eliminate such a high-value target? Ukrainian security experts note that more than a day has passed without any official suspect description or wanted notice – suggesting this was no ordinary crime.
Ukraine’s capital not safe for its own spies
This assassination fits into an escalating shadow war where both sides have been eliminating each other’s operatives with increasing sophistication. Ukrainian intelligence has been actively targeting Russian officers implicated in war crimes since the full-scale invasion began.
The targets have been high-profile and devastating to Russian operations.
In December 2024, chemical weapons chief Igor Kirillov was killed by a remotely detonated explosive outside his Moscow apartment building.
In April 2025, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalikdied in a car explosion near Moscow. Russian drone program chief Colonel Aleksey Kolomoytsev was eliminated in Moscow Oblast in September 2024.
These operations have reached beyond military targets. In May 2025, former Ukrainian official Andrii Portnov, who fled Ukraine and supported Russian aggression, was shot dead outside an elite Madrid school where he was dropping off his children.
For Ukraine’s intelligence services, Voronich’s death represents both a devastating loss and a troubling escalation. The decades of operational knowledge that died with him cannot be replaced overnight. While senior Ukrainian intelligence officers like Budanov already live under heavy security after multiple assassination attempts, Voronich’s killing suggests Russia’s capabilities in Kyiv have improved.
The success of this operation – no arrests, no public suspect description – indicates a level of operational sophistication that should concern Ukraine’s remaining intelligence leadership.
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Police and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) operatives have detained a mother and her 13-year-old daughter in southern city of Odesa for conducting arson attacks on Ukrainian military infrastructure under direction from Russian intelligence services.
Russian intelligence services have systematically recruited Ukrainian civilians, including minors, to conduct domestic sabotage operations since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Russian operatives target financially struggling Ukrainians through social media and encrypted messaging apps with promises of easy money. Teenagers, displaced families, and people facing economic hardship become prime targets. What do they get paid? Several hundred to several thousand dollars, typically transferred through cryptocurrency to avoid detection.
The assignments rarely vary. Burn military vehicles. Film the destruction. Send proof for payment. Ukrainian authorities report that vehicle arson represents the most common task given to recruited civilians.
Why use locals instead of professional saboteurs? Russian intelligence gets better operational security and propaganda value when Ukrainians attack their own military infrastructure. The footage serves dual purposes—actual damage and demoralization campaigns.
The case began when the minor was recruited through a messaging application, according to investigators.
Her assigned role involved coordinating target selection with her Russian handler and providing video documentation of completed attacks as proof of execution.
Law enforcement officials established that in early July, the teenager doused a railway relay cabinet with flammable liquid and set it ablaze. The relay cabinet belonged to Ukrainian Railways infrastructure.
Ukrainian police arrested a 13-year-old girl and her mother after they torched a railway facility and a military evacuation vehicle in Odesa getting paid by Russia spies. Photo: National Police of Ukraine
Several days later, the girl received instructions to target a Volkswagen vehicle owned by a female Ukrainian service member. The car had been used at the front lines for evacuating wounded soldiers, investigators determined. Facing this more complex assignment, the teenager approached her 58-year-old mother for assistance.
Rather than declining to participate, the woman agreed to join the operation. The pair carried out the vehicle arson during nighttime hours in the regional center, using similar methods to their previous attack.
Ukrainian police arrested a 13-year-old girl and her mother after they torched a railway facility and a military evacuation vehicle in Odesa getting paid by Russia spies.Photos: National Police of Ukraine
Ukrainian prosecutors have classified the actions as attempted sabotage committed during martial law and obstruction of Armed Forces operations during the special period. The adult defendant faces charges under the latter statute, which carries a maximum penalty of eight years imprisonment, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The minor has been transferred to custody and guardianship authorities rather than facing criminal prosecution due to her age. Compulsory educational measures may be applied in her case, officials stated.
Earlier, Ukrainian law enforcement reported that Russian intelligence is conducting a covert sabotage campaign across Ukraine and Europe by recruiting vulnerable individuals, especially elderly Ukrainians, through deceptive phone calls and messaging apps like Viber.
They impersonate Ukrainian security officials, such as the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) or police, to blackmail pensioners with fabricated charges—like alleged collaboration for buying Russian-made medicines—and coerce them into carrying out sabotage tasks or paying money.
Similar recruitment tactics are used in European countries, including the Baltic states, where operatives lure locals with money or blackmail, treating them as expendable pawns.
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Russia recruits elderly in covert sabotage campaign across Ukraine and Europe
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Two Chinese nationals sit in Ukrainian custody tonight, accused of attempting to steal classified documentation on Ukraine’s Neptune anti-ship missile system. The weapon that sank Russia’s flagship Moskva.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) says it caught the pair red-handed in Kyiv. A 24-year-old former university student and his father, who resides in China but made periodic visits to Ukraine.
Chinese father-son espionage in Ukraine
The younger suspect studied at a Kyiv technical university until 2023, when he was expelled for poor grades. Instead of returning to China, he stayed in Ukraine. The SBU suggests he used his remaining contacts to target someone with access to advanced weapons development.
His father allegedly traveled to Ukraine to personally coordinate intelligence operations, according to the security service’s investigation. The family business, apparently, was espionage.
The student attempted to recruit a Ukrainian citizen connected to cutting-edge defense projects. The goal: technical documentation on Neptune missile production that could be smuggled back to Chinese intelligence services.
Ukrainian counterintelligence officers say they identified the operation early and arrested the student during a document handover. His father was detained as he prepared to transfer the stolen information to Beijing.
During searches, investigators seized mobile phones containing what they describe as coordination messages between the two suspects.
Both face espionage charges under Ukraine’s Criminal Code. Maximum sentence: 15 years with property confiscation.
Why would China want Neptune missile secrets?
The weapon has proven its worth in combat. Two Neptune missiles sank the Russian cruiser Moskva in April 2022—the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship and a potent symbol of Russian naval power. In March 2024, another Neptune strike hit the landing ship Konstantin Olshansky at its occupied Crimean base, rendering the vessel incapable of combat.
The missile itself measures just over five meters long and weighs 870 kilograms (1 918 lbs). Range: up to 280 kilometers (173 miles). It can sink vessels displacing up to 5,000 tons.
Recent modifications expanded the Neptune’s capabilities beyond ships to ground targets that has an extended range of up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).
This advancement allows Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory, including strategic targets such as oil refineries, exemplified by a likely 14 March strike on a refinery in Tuapse about 450 km (279 miles) from the front line.
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Ukraine says it hit Russia’s stolen Ukrainian ship with Neptune missile in occupied Crimea
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The Odesa car bombing suspect, a 22-year-old man, was arrested on 5 July 2025 by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the National Police, the same day the explosion seriously injured a local man. Odesa is the local capital in southern Ukraine on the Black Sea coast.
As Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, the SBU has been reporting a rise in espionage and sabotage operations, including arrests of suspected spies. Similar sabotage attempts have also been documented across the European Union, spanning from espionage to arson attacks. In Ukraine, some recruited agents have previously unknowingly served as suicide bombers.
Explosive detonated under parked car in Odesa’s Kyivskyi District
According to the SBU, the suspect, a previously convicted resident of Zaporizhzhia, planted a pre-prepared homemade explosive device under a vehicle. His handler from Russian special services selected the targeted car. The bombing took place in the morning of 5 July on Varna Street in the Kyivskyi District of Odesa.
The SBU states the Odesa car bombing suspect acted on instructions from Russian handlers who coordinated the attack remotely. The Russians reportedly recruited the man through Telegram channels. SBU says he acted on direct instructions from Russian intelligence. To transmit the explosion to his handlers in real time, the suspect installed a remotely-accessed smartphone facing the bombing site.
Civilian seriously injured in the explosion
Suspilne reported shortly after the attack that the blast seriously injured a local man, who was hospitalized with heavy bodily injuries. His car, under which the explosive was planted, was completely destroyed.
This comes amid the daily Russian drone and missile strikes, often targeting Odesa. Nearby residents told Suspilne that the explosion, which occurred without any air raid alert, also damaged windows in adjacent residential buildings.
A local resident said,
“I heard a strong explosion. I looked outside and saw smoke. We helped him—he was alive but in shock.”
According to witnesses, the blast occurred around 09:00.
SBU captures Odesa car bombing suspect as he tries to flee after the attack, the man faces terrorism charges
The SBU reports that following the detonation, the suspect attempted to leave Odesa Oblast, hoping to go into hiding. However, SBU officers and the National Police detained him “hot on the trail” later that same day, 5 July 2025.
The man has been formally notified of suspicion under the Criminal Cde’s Part 2 of Article 258—committing a terrorist act. He faces up to 12 years in prison. The SBU says pre-trial investigative actions are ongoing, and efforts are underway to establish all the circumstances of the crime.
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The Security Service of Ukraine has found Chinese-made components in the debris of Iranian Shahed drones used by Russia to strike Kyiv.
Although China publicly maintains a neutral stance on the Russo-Ukrainian war, it has sustained close economic ties with Russia and, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, has been supplying components for Russian ammunition and drone production. By early 2025, 80% of the electronics in Russian drones were reportedly sourced from China. Beijing has dismissed these claims as baseless accusations.
According to an official statement, the Russian-modified Shaheds contained launch parts marked with the name of Suzhou Ecod Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. These drones were used in an overnight attack on Kyiv on 4 July.
“These components, specifically catapult launch mounts, were recovered from the drones that Russian forces used to attack the capital,” the SBU stated, releasing photographic evidence.
A criminal case has been opened, with the strike on Kyiv classified as a war crime.
Marking of the Chinese manufacturing company “Suzhou Ecod Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd” on Shahed drone parts found in Kyiv. Credit: SBU
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has pointed to the symbolic irony: “We found a component of the Shahed-136/Geran-2 in Kyiv, manufactured in China and delivered quite recently, while just the day before, the Russian strike damaged the building of China’s Consulate General in Odesa.”
To the minister, this illustrates how Putin has drawn third countries into his war.
“North Korean troops, Iranian weapons, Chinese manufacturers — this is what Ukraine is fighting against,” said Sybiha.
The Ukrainian foreign minister has emphasized that global security is interconnected: “Security in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific region is inseparable. This is not a competition for attention.”
He has called on the US and the international community to increase pressure not only on the Kremlin but also on all those supporting its war.
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Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) detained a Ukrainian Air Force major suspected of spying for Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the agency reported on July 3.
The alleged spy, arrested during a special operation in Lviv Oblast, was reportedly recruited through his ex-wife, a former military officer now cooperating with Russian forces in occupied Melitopol.
According to the SBU, the officer was gathering coordinates of operational airfields, logistics hubs, and maintenance centers used by Ukrainian combat aircraft. If successful, Russia intended to launch missile and drone strikes on those locations.
The SBU said the operation was coordinated with Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief and that the agent was supervised by Aleksandr Belodedov, an officer in the FSB's Alpha special operations unit.
Authorities said they intercepted the agent before any damage was done, documenting his communication with Russian intelligence and securing military sites at risk.
The suspect has been charged with high treason committed during wartime by a group of individuals under Ukraine's Criminal Code. He remains in custody and faces life imprisonment with asset seizure.
His ex-wife was also charged in absentia for treason during wartime.
Ukrainian drones struck a Russian ammunition depot in occupied Donetsk Oblast overnight on July 3, setting off a series of huge explosions, Ukraine's State Security Service said on July 3.
"Starting at 10 p.m., explosions rang out at the depots, followed by a powerful secondary detonation of ammunition and a fire," the SBU said in a post on social media.
According to the SBU, the ammunition depot is located in the occupied Ukrainian city of Khartsyzsk, near Donetsk, which is "of important strategic importance, as it is used by the Russians as a rear base."
"The enemy has placed command posts, logistics centers, and ammunition depots there. All of them are legitimate military targets," the statement added.
Unconfirmed videos posted to social media show a fire already burning followed by a large explosion and shockwave.
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) July 2, 2025
Elsewhere on July 3, Ukraine confirmed strikes on the Energia factory in Russia's Lipetsk Oblast overnight, a facility that produces components for missiles and drones, including batteries for the Iskander missile system and cruise missiles.
Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Counter-Disinformation Center at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, confirmed the strike, calling Energia "one of the most critical targets for Russia."
Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast (Nizar al-Rifai/The Kyiv Independent)
According to Kovalenko, the facility manufactures batteries for missile guidance and glider modules, including for the Iskander system and cruise missiles.
Ukraine's military regularly strikes military targets in Russian-occupied territories and deep within Russia in an attempt to diminish Moscow's fighting power as it continues its war against Ukraine.
On the evening of June 30, Ukraine similarly struck a command post of the 8th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Armed Forces in the Russian-occupied part of Donetsk Oblast.
Russia has for months focused its offensive efforts on the embattled town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast and has recently been escalating attempts to break through to neighboring Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a region that has not yet seen combat.
Metropolitan Onufriy, leader of the Moscow-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC MP), has had his Ukrainian citizenship revoked, the Ukrainian Security Service announced.
The announcement comes amid growing tensions over the UOC MP’s allegiance in a war increasingly recognized to be driven by the quasi-religious ideology of the “Russian world,” promoted by the Moscow Patriarchy, which is still recognized as the mother church by many UOC MP faithful.
The Security Service (SBU) reported that Onufriy, birthname Orest Berezovskyi, had willingly received Russian citizenship in 2002, while still holding the status of a Ukrainian citizen.
At the time, dual citizenship was prohibited by Ukrainian law, and while a groundbreaking law allowing dual citizenship is pending approval by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, it still prohibits allegiance to “unfriendly states” like Russia for Ukrainian citizens.
Reportedly, Zelenskyy has signed the decree stripping Onufriy of citizenship, although it has not been published.
UOC MP denies everything, vows to fight back
A UOC MP spokesman rejected the claim that the UOC MP primate has a Russian passport and stated that Onufriy has only Ukrainian citizenship.
Metropolitan Onufriy of the UOC (MP) will also appeal the presidential decree and prove that he has no other citizenships than Ukrainian, the spokesman said in a comment to Suspilne.
The issue of Onufriy’s citizenship had already come up in 2023, when a media report found that he and 20 other UOC MP hierarchs had Russian passports.
After the publication, the UOC MP’s top hierarch decried Russia’s invasion and claimed that his Russian citizenship was extended by default from the time when he lived and studied in Moscow. Nevertheless, now he does not have a Russian passport now and considers himself only a Ukrainian citizen, he said without specifying when he stopped being a Russian citizen.
However, media reports from NV and Agenstvo have circulated scans of Onufriy’s allegedly valid passport, casting doubt on these refutations.
The Russian passport of UOC MP primate, Metropolitan Onufriy, as per NV sources
Can Ukraine actually strip its citizens of citizenship?
Ukraine’s Constitution prohibits stripping citizenship—but allows terminating it for those who voluntarily acquired foreign passports without resolving their Ukrainian status.
Parliament member Serhiy Vlasenko explained that Onufriy now automatically becomes a foreigner in Ukraine, losing all citizen rights. He must register as a foreign resident, obtain residence and work permits—”the same procedures as any Russian Federation citizen coming to Ukraine.”
The legal distinction matters. President Zelensky previously terminated citizenship for oligarchs Igor Kolomoisky, Viktor Medvedchuk, and businessman Hennadiy Korban using identical grounds: holding undeclared foreign passports.
Onufriy can challenge the decree in court. But if judges confirm he holds a Russian passport, the presidential decree stands. And renouncing Russian citizenship isn’t simple—it requires a “long, complex, bureaucratized procedure” involving personal participation in Russian consular processes.
The citizenship revocation transforms Ukraine’s top Moscow-aligned cleric into a legal foreigner in the country where he leads 8,000 parishes.
What will happen to Onufriy?
Ukrainian law technically gives stateless individuals three months to leave before facing deportation. But reality operates differently. As Archbishop Iona of the St. Iona Monastery casually noted on Facebook, many UOC bishops stripped of citizenship “continue to live and serve the church and people of Ukraine. Don’t panic.”
Namely, 13 UOC hierarchs lost their citizenship in January 2023. Five more followed in February 2023. None were deported. They remain in Ukraine, conducting services, managing parishes—functionally unchanged despite their legal limbo.
The SBU’s move creates a different kind of pressure. If Onufriy attempts international travel, he faces the fate of businessman Hennadiy Korban and others stripped of Ukrainian passports: denied re-entry, effectively trapped inside the country they call home.
But deportation? Unlikely. Ukraine lacks both political will and practical mechanisms to forcibly remove an 80-year-old religious leader whose 8,000 parishes still serve millions of faithful. The state has bigger battles, like the ongoing court proceedings under August 2024’s law banning Moscow-linked religious organizations.
The nine-month transition period for churches to prove independence has expired. The UOC MP now faces potential dissolution of its entire network—a far more existential threat than one prelate’s passport problems.
The citizenship revocation serves as legal theater while the real drama unfolds in courtrooms where the UOC MP’s survival hangs in the balance.
Does the law ban the UOC MP? Not so fast
“Not about banning.” Theologian unpacks Ukraine’s new anti-Russian church law
Is the UOC MP aligned with Moscow?
The status of the UOC MP in Ukraine became especially contentious after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The Moscow-aligned church, which enjoyed privileged status for years while promoting “Russian world” ideology, came under increased pressure to clarify its allegiance.
And while the UOC MP claimed to sever ties with its mother church, the Russian Orthodox Church, in May 2022, it did not walk the talk, a Ukrainian expert committee found in 2023.
A conference of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate on 27 May 2022 in Kyiv claimed to have severed ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. Photo: UOC MP
Reportedly, there is a split within the church, with hardliner parishes ignoring the instructions to no longer pray for the Moscow Patriarch during liturgies.
As well, the alleged severance of ties is not followed up by recognition of the UOC MP as a separate entity in the Orthodox world’s constellation of independent churches. The UOC MP hierarchs are also, apparently, still part of the Moscow Patriarchy’s ruling structure—the Synode.
The Ukrainian state has attempted to curb the UOC MP’s influence—not only via the August 2024 law, but by opening 174 probes into the collaboration of separate church hierarchs with Russia, with 31 guilty sentences.
However, many UOC MP faithful insist they are patriots of Ukraine, with select church voices stressing that UOC MP faithful defend Ukraine in the ranks of the Ukrainian army.
Thus far, the UOC MP’s status is hybrid: while some leaders like Metropolitan Iona have flipped from “Russian world” advocate to self-declared Ukrainian patriot, leaflets promoting Russian chauvinistic and imperialistic views are still observed in other church centers.
Explore further
Anatomy of treason: how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church sold its soul to the “Russian world”
Growing church drama in Ukraine
The UOC MP’s precarious position is complicated by competition with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), granted independence by Moscow Patriarch Kirill’s nemesis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in 2018.
Both structures have roughly similar numbers of parishes (8,097 UOC MP vs 9,000 OCU). 687 parishes have ditched affiliation with the UOC MP to join the OCU since 2022. However, these transitions are increasingly marred by accusations of forceful takeovers amid state backing.
What is Moscow’s stake? The UOC MP represents a whopping 23% of the Russian Orthodox Church’s parishes worldwide, and is the largest concentration of parishes outside Russia itself.
The UOC MP remains Moscow’s sole surviving pillar of influence in a Ukraine that has otherwise severed all connections to Russia since 2022. Its ideological power runs deep: the fantasy of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus as “Holy Rus” united against the “satanic West” forms the theological cornerstone of Putin’s war.
OCU members occupied a contested UOC MP church after a standoff at a funeral of a KIA Ukrainian defender. Photo: Suspilne, 6 April 2023
This, as well, as revocations of leases on historic churches in state property, has prompted the UOC MP to lead a campaign decrying alleged religious persecution in Ukraine. This messaging has had impressive success among American Republicans, largely due to the lobbying efforts of lawyer Robert Amsterdam.
The Ukrainian state would indeed prefer a single Orthodox Church, and public opinion increasingly backs decisive action.
A June 2025 SOCIS poll found 34.7% of Ukrainians support liquidating the UOC MP as a legal organization, while 10.8% favor forcing its merger with the OCU.
Combined, 45.5% want the state to act decisively.
Yet 31.7% believe the government shouldn’t interfere in religious affairs, revealing Ukraine’s deep ambivalence about using state power against a church that still claims millions of faithful.
The resistance of even Ukraine-oriented UOC MP parishes to joining the OCU structure hints at deeper issues beyond historical animosity between two competitors.
Clashing allegiances, models of religious life, and the OCU’s desire to occupy the privileged state-promoted status once held by Moscow’s church in Ukraine will continue to stir Ukraine’s religious life for many years ahead.
Explore further
Russian World: the heresy driving Putin’s war
Editor’s note: This article was updated to include the section “Can Ukraine actually strip its citizens of citizenship?”
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Another large blast from Ukrainian intelligence was heard on Russian territory. On 28 June, Ukrainian Defense Intelligence units, in coordination with other components of the Defense Forces, carried out an operation on Russian ammunition depots in Bryansk Oblast.
Bryansk is serving as a launchpad for Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine. In June 2025, Ukrainian forces intensified operations against Russian military infrastructure in Bryansk Oblast. They included high-profile attacks on missile bases, airfields, and railway infrastructure, resulting in the destruction of Iskander missile launchers, helicopters, and ammunition depots.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the target was the 1060th Logistics Center, formerly known as the 120th Arsenal of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry.
The assault caused explosions and a large fire at the facility, which has already been confirmed by intelligence. The final assessment of the damage is still being clarified.
“The Defense Forces continue to take all measures to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian occupiers and to force the Russian Federation to end its armed aggression against Ukraine,” the General Staff emphasized.
Earlier, Kyiv carried out a drone strike on the Kirovske military airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea.
According to an official statement, the strike destroyed several Russian helicopters, including Mi-8, Mi-26, and Mi-28, as well as a Pantsir-S1 self-propelled air defense system.
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On the night of June 27–28, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) carried out a drone strike on the Kirovske military airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea.
According to an official statement, the strike destroyed several Russian helicopters — including Mi-8, Mi-26, and Mi-28 — as well as a Pantsir-S1 self-propelled air defense system. Additional damage was reported to ammunition depots, air defense infrastructure, and drone facilities.
“The occupiers must understand: their expensive equipment is not safe anywhere — not on the front line, not in occupied territory, not in the rear,” the statement said.
Secondary explosions and ongoing strikes
Secondary detonations continued throughout the night, suggesting munitions storage sites were hit. This marked the second consecutive day the SBU reported destroying Russian military assets in Crimea.
On 26 June, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) announced that its Prymary (Ghosts) unit carried out a separate drone strike on five key components of Russia’s S-400 Triumf air defense system. Targets included two multifunction radars, two detection radars, and one missile launcher.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense confirmed a drone attack over Crimea, claiming that nine Ukrainian UAVs were intercepted.
While independent visual confirmation is still pending, local Telegram channels reported explosions in the Kirovske area. The monitoring group Crimean Wind documented five to six explosions between 2:50 and 3:02 AM, following drone activity. Russian air defenses reportedly fired in the Dzhankoi district around 1:30 AM.
According to Crimean Wind, citing NASA FIRMS satellite data, large fires were detected at the Kirovske airfield in Crimea on 28 June 2025. Photo: Crimean Wind
Fires detected by satellite
According to Crimean Wind, citing NASA FIRMS satellite data, large fires were detected at the airfield. The group published annotated imagery showing multiple heat sources, including on or near helicopter pads.
At least one helicopter was reportedly seen burning, and air defense positions and depots appear to have been hit.
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Editor's note: The previously published footage, provided by an SBU source, was allegedly related to a different operation and was deleted after the mistake was identified.
Drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck the Kirovske military airfield in occupied Crimea overnight on June 28, the SBU told the Kyiv Independent.
The attack destroyed Mi-8, Mi-26 and Mi-28 attack helicopters, and a Pantsyr-S1 self-propelled anti-aircraft missile and gun system, the SBU claimed.
According to the SBU, Ukraine targeted Russian aviation, air defense systems, as well as ammunition, reconnaissance and attack drones storage facilities.
Secondary explosions were heard at the airfield during the night.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.
Earlier on June 27, Ukrainian drones struck four Su-34 fighter jets at the Marinovka airfield in Russia's Volgograd Oblast, according to the military.
Preliminary reports indicate that two Russian fighter jets were destroyed in the June 27 attack, and the other two were damaged. Russia uses the aircraft to bomb Ukraine.
Since the start of its full-scale war in February 2022, Russia has lost 420 airplanes and 337 helicopters, Ukraine's General Staff said in its latest update on June 28. The Kyiv Independent could not verify these figures.
Ukrainian authorities arrested a 66-year-old US citizen who evaded justice for over three decades after fleeing the United States following charges of sexual crimes against children, the Office of the Prosecutor General announced.
The man was detained in Kyiv Oblast during a joint operation involving Ukrainian prosecutors, the Cyber Police Department, the FBI, and Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice. He had been living under a false identity, using forged documents claiming to be a Mexican citizen.
“On the territory of Kyiv Oblast, a 66-year-old US citizen was detained who had been on the international wanted list since 1992,” the Office of the Prosecutor General reported.
According to US law enforcement data, the suspect worked as director of a preschool in Pima County, Arizona, where he committed sexual offenses against four children aged 4 to 9 between 1984 and 1991. Before the Arizona Superior Court could issue sentencing, the man fled US territory.
Ukrainian investigators discovered the fugitive had been living in Kyiv Oblast for an extended period. Using forged documentation, he posed as a Mexican national and purchased a private house in one of the region’s villages.
Law enforcement located him through digital investigation methods, including open-source intelligence analysis. Following identification, authorities conducted searches at his residence and arrested him.
The suspect faces 15 counts under US criminal law related to child sexual abuse. Ukrainian prosecutors are preparing a motion for extradition arrest pending resolution of his transfer to the United States.
The case demonstrates Ukraine’s commitment to international cooperation in criminal justice, particularly regarding extradition of individuals accused of grave crimes involving child exploitation, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The arrest comes after more than 30 years of the suspect living freely under an assumed identity, highlighting both the persistence of international law enforcement cooperation and the challenges of tracking fugitives across borders.
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Ukraine's security service (SBU) has charged in absentia a former defense engineer with treason, accusing him of helping Russia target Ukrainian cities by developing navigation systems for cruise and ballistic missiles, the SBU said on June 25.
According to the agency, Oleh Borsuk, a 61-year-old Ukrainian national, fled to Russia in 2009 after resigning from a defense plant in Cherkasy Oblast. He later became deputy general director of Moscow-based design bureau "Navis," a major player in Russia's military-industrial complex.
Borsuk allegedly oversaw the development and modernization of satellite guidance systems (GPS/GLONASS) used in Russian missiles. In 2023 alone, under his leadership, nearly 3,200 satellite navigation units were produced, including those for Iskander tactical missile systems, the SBU said.
These systems are also used in missiles like the Kh-101, Kh-59, and Kalibr — weapons frequently deployed in Russian airstrikes against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
The deadliest attacks include the July 8, 2024, strike on the Okhmatdyt children hospital in Kyiv, which killed two adults, including a doctor, and injured more than 50 people, including children. The hospital was hit by a Kh-101 cruise missile in accordance with a programmed route.
Another devastating strike occurred on June 17, when a massive missile and drone assault on Kyiv killed 30 people and injured 172 others. One of the deadliest impacts was a direct hit on a residential building by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, which caused the complete collapse of an entire section of the nine-story residential building.
According to a spokesperson for Ukraine's Air Force Yurii Ihnat, the building was struck by a Kh-101 missile.
The SBU has charged Borsuk in absentia under Ukraine's Criminal Code for treason committed under martial law.
"Since the perpetrator is hiding in the territory of the Russian Federation, comprehensive measures are underway to bring him to justice for crimes against our state," the SBU said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023 authorized the ordering of at least two attempts to assassinate Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Gordon, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Maliuk told media on June 23, RBC-Ukraine reports.
Gordon is a prominent journalist and media personality popular in both Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries, known for his sharp criticism of Russian aggression. His YouTube channel has 4.5 million subscribers.
"Gordon triggers Russians. He has a large audience in Russia and in the (Russian) occupied territories (of Ukraine)," Maliuk said. "There are two networks that worked on Gordon that we can speak (publicly) about."
According to the SBU, the first network was led by a former lawmaker from the now-banned pro-Russian Party of Regions, originally from Poltava Oblast. The agency did not name the lawmaker.
The former MP was allegedly tasked by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) with coordinating surveillance and preparations for a strike that would kill Gordon.
"The plan was to use a homemade explosive device or coordinate a missile or a drone strike — but only if Gordon's presence in the targeted house was confirmed," Maliuk said.
The SBU had already been investigating the ex-lawmaker for involvement in a separate railway bombing case in Poltava Oblast when the assassination plot was uncovered. The group was arrested before executing the plan.
The second assassination team, Maliuk said, was a criminal group from Dagestan working secretly for the FSB under the cover of being fugitives from Russian law enforcement.
"They sent this individual here long before the full-scale war. He carried out FSB tasks all the time — very professionally, very covertly," Maliuk said.
The group monitored Gordon's movements and residence, planning to assassinate him either with a short-barreled weapon if he was alone, or with a rifle and follow-up pistol shot if accompanied by a bodyguard.
The SBU detained the group, and its leader confessed to preparing the hit on Moscow's orders. He said he had been promised $400,000 for the killing.
Gordon, who has become a high-profile figure on Ukraine's information front, regularly uses his platform to expose Russian disinformation and advocate for Ukrainian sovereignty.
Ukraine's security service (SBU) is teaching teenagers how to avoid recruitment by Russian intelligence online, the New York Times (NYT) reported on June 21.
"Maybe not all of these special operations are reported in the media — but believe me, the enemy is not sleeping... They are working actively and carrying out illegal activities, as strange as it may sound, directly inside your phones," SBU spokesperson Roksolana Yavorska-Isaienko told students.
Approximately 22% of Ukrainians recruited by Russian intelligence to conduct sabotage or terrorist attacks are minors, Artem Dekhtiarenko, SBU spokesperson, said on April 2.
Russian intelligence attempts to recruit Ukrainian civilians online, offering easy money in return for sharing sensitive data or preparing sabotage or terrorist acts.
Russian intelligence finds its recruits using social platforms, including Telegram, Discord, and TikTok.
Unsuspecting teenagers are often offered hundreds or even thousands of dollars to conduct simpler tasks such as delivering packages or taking photos of energy sites, the NYT reports.
More serious tasks are commonly assigned to teenagers once they have been blackmailed for conducting less serious operations beforehand or when their phones are hacked to reveal compromising photos.
Russian intelligence is actively attempting to recruit Ukrainian nationals for illegal operations across the EU, Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) said on June 2.
"The recruitment of Ukrainians for hostile operations in Europe is yet another tool of hybrid aggression that the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine and the entire European community," HUR said.
The SBU caught a Russian agent as he was filming a military airfield in preparation for a Russian strike, the agency reported on June 15.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) recruited the unemployed 24-year-old via the Telegram messaging app to collect coordinates for air attacks on airfields and logistic depots, the SBU said.
The Russian FSB allegedly offered "easy money" and instructed the recruit to find military facilities and carry out reconnaissance on the ground.
Arkady Gostev, head of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service, was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for creating a network of torture chambers in the Russian-occupied part of Kherson Oblast, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) announced on June 19.
Gostev was found guilty of orchestrating the transformation of captured Ukrainian prisons into torture sites used to detain and brutalize members of the local resistance. The SBU said victims were subjected to "brutal torture" intended to break their will and force submission to the Kremlin rule.
According to investigators, Gostev personally oversaw the establishment of torture facilities and pushed for their inclusion in Russia's national prison registry through the Justice Ministry.
The court ruled he committed "actions aimed at violently changing or overthrowing the constitutional order or seizing state power."
"Comprehensive measures are being taken to bring him to justice for crimes against our state," the SBU said, noting that Gostev remains in Russia.
Kherson Oblast, which stretches from the Dnipro River to the Black Sea, remains partially occupied, with the east-bank territories still under Russian control.
Gostev joins a growing list of senior Russian officials charged in absentia with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the administration of occupied territories.
Ukraine has also targeted collaborators working with the occupation authorities.
On June 18, Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) confirmed the assassination of Mykhailo Hrytsai, a Russian-appointed deputy mayor in Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, for his role in organizing repression and torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) caught a Russian agent red-handed as he was filming a military airfield in preparation for a Russian strike, the agency reported on June 15.
According to the SBU, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) recruited the unemployed 24-year-old via the Telegram messaging app to collect coordinates for air attacks on airfields and logistic depots.
The FSB had allegedly instructed him to find military facilities and carry out reconnaissance on the ground in exchange for “easy money.”
The man was detained outside an airfield in Rivne Oblast while filming its outer perimeter with a hidden camera in his car. The SBU seized a phone and the camera on the scene, while other evidence was taken from the agent’s apartment.
If found guilty, he faces life imprisonment for high treason.
The SBU regularly announces it has foiled Russian agents and terrorist plots against military and civilian targets. The FSB usually targets unemployed people, those with criminal records, or addicts, according to the SBU's data.
In April, the SBU detained an instructor at a training center in Lviv Oblast who was planning to assassinate the base's commanders. That same month, the SBU detained nine FSB agents, including five minors, for plotting terrorist attacks in central and eastern Ukraine.
More than a fifth of FSB recruits in Ukraine are minors.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has arrested two individuals in Kyiv accused of attempting to extort $200,000 from a European defense company, potentially jeopardizing the delivery of electronic warfare (EW) systems to Ukraine's military, the SBU reported on June 14.
The suspects allegedly demanded the payment in exchange for facilitating the successful testing and adoption of five radio electronic warfare systems provided to Ukraine at no cost, according to statements released by the SBU and the Prosecutor General's Office.
The devices, supplied by a private foreign manufacturer, were financed by Ukraine's international partners. The producer had already delivered five systems to Ukraine, with additional contracts possible if the equipment performed well in combat conditions, the SBU said.
According to investigators, the suspects falsely claimed to have influence within Ukraine's Defense Ministry and promised to use their connections to ensure positive evaluations of the equipment.
"Under the guise of having contacts within the ministry, the men demanded $200,000 from the company in exchange for ensuring no obstacles during official trials of the equipment," the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement.
Both men have been formally charged under Ukraine's Criminal Code for alleged obstruction of the Armed Forces and receiving unlawful benefits through influence peddling. The charges carry a possible sentence of up to eight years in prison and asset confiscation.
The arrests were made as part of a broader investigation led by the SBU and conducted under the procedural oversight of the Specialized Defense Prosecutor's Office. Authorities say the investigation is ongoing to identify all individuals involved.
Ukraine continues to rely heavily on international military assistance as it defends against Russia's full-scale invasion, now in its fourth year. Ukraine uses EW systems during Russian attacks on its cities and on the front line.
Kyiv and its Western partners launched an electronic warfare coalition in April, which consists of 11 countries and comes on top of other eight Western coalitions to support Ukraine. Other similar initiatives include an artillery coalition, a fighter jet coalition, and a demining coalition, organized within the framework of the Ramsteinformat.
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