Desk Report:
Ukraine says two Russian agents have been killed after a top intelligence officer was shot dead.
The head of Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said in a video message that two spies working for the Russian FSB were killed when they tried to resist arrest on Sunday morning.
The BBC reported that the incident began last Thursday (July 10). That day, Colonel Ivan Voronych was shot dead by an unknown assailant in broad daylight in a car park in Kiev. CCTV footage shows a man running towards Voronych as he was leaving a building in the southern Holosiivskyi district of Kiev shortly after 9am when a man ran towards him and opened fire. The SBU said the spies had been monitoring the movements of the slain Colonel Voronych. After the attack, they went into hiding and went to a place to collect a pistol with a silencer. However, a joint investigation by the National Police and the SBU identified their location and they were eventually caught.
Today, the National Police of Ukraine said that the two deceased were citizens of a foreign country. However, it did not say which country. There was no immediate response from Russia.
The SBU, Ukraine’s intelligence agency, is usually engaged in internal security and counterintelligence activities in the country. However, since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, the agency has also played an important role in secret attacks and assassinations inside Russia. The SBU was also behind the assassination of high-ranking Russian General Igor Kirillov last December. In addition, in April this year, General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow. The Kremlin also blamed Ukraine for this assassination.
However, Ukrainian security agencies have not officially admitted responsibility for these assassinations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukraine had suffered the largest Russian airstrike in its history.
The United Nations reported that in June 2025, Ukraine suffered its highest civilian casualties in three years.
Russian forces are gradually advancing on the front lines of the war. In particular, Russian forces have regained control of the Kursk region of Russia, which was suddenly captured by Ukrainian forces last year. Attempts to reach a ceasefire in the war that has been going on for more than three years have repeatedly failed.
