Kiev’s secret war: targeted assassinations and covert operations in Russia

Ukrainian intelligence hits strategic targets on Russian soil, eliminating key figures in Moscow’s war effort

While the conflict on the ground continues unabated, Ukraine is waging a parallel war of undercover operations and targeted attacks on Russian territory. The latest episode occurred in Moscow, with the killing of Armen Sargsyan, founder of the ArBat battalion and key figure of the pro-Russian front in the Donbass. The attack, attributed to the Ukrainian secret services, is only the latest in a long series of targeted killings that have targeted Russian collaborators, propagandists and military officers.

Kiev’s strategy: strike at the nerve centres

Behind these operations is the SBU, the Ukrainian security service, an apparatus that has its roots in the old Soviet KGB and has refined its operational capabilities over the years. According to intelligence experts, the SBU has a network of agents in enemy territory, supported by Russian collaborators recruited to infiltrate Moscow’s strategic structures. A Western diplomat, quoted by the Financial Times, described the agency as having ‘immense, perhaps excessive power’.

In recent years, the SBU has carried out internal arrests and purges to eliminate agents loyal to Moscow after 2014. Director Vasyl Maliuk emphasised that each operation is conducted with ever-changing tactics, so as not to leave any weak points exploitable by Russian intelligence.

CIA support and the SBU’s leap forward

Although the Western allies put aside criticism of the SBU’s failure to reform during the war, collaboration with the CIA led to an enhancement of its operational capabilities. The US invested millions of dollars in training programmes, helping to make Ukrainian intelligence one of the most feared in Europe.

As proof of this efficiency, the SBU has been credited with some of the most egregious blows in recent years, including:

• The Crimean Bridge explosions in October 2022 and July 2023;
• The attacks on the Russian Black Sea fleet;
• The attack that killed Darya Dugina, daughter of ultranationalist ideologue Aleksandr Dugin, in August 2022;
• The elimination of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, killed in St. Petersburg in April 2023 with a device hidden in a statuette;
• The killing of former Ukrainian MP Ilya Kyva, who fled to Russia after the start of the war.

From the world of propaganda to the military leadership: the change of strategy

While initially the main targets were Russian propaganda figures, such as Dugina and Tatarsky, in recent months the SBU has started to directly target Russian military commanders. In November, senior Russian naval officer Valery Trankovsky was eliminated in Crimea, while in December, General Igor Kirillov was assassinated in Moscow. The latter was accused by Kiev of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces and of spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, claiming it had been propagated from the US naval base at Sigonella.

The SBU did not hesitate to officially claim these actions, demonstrating a change of approach from the past, when operations were conducted without official declarations.

A long list of targets eliminated

In recent years, targeted operations have multiplied, hitting key figures in the Russian system:

• Sergey Yevsyukov, former director of Olenivka prison, accused of torturing Ukrainian prisoners, killed in Donetsk in December 2023;
• Nikita Klenkov, Russian army officer, shot while on leave;
• Mikhail Shatsky, engineer responsible for the development of Russian cruise missiles, shot dead in Moscow.

Some attacks were not fatal: the former Ukrainian agent Vasily Prozorov survived an explosion in the Russian capital, as did the writer and ultranationalist fighter Zakhar Prilepin, who was injured in the explosion of his car in May 2023.

A war in the shadows set to continue

The effectiveness of SBU operations has reshaped the dynamics of the war, taking the confrontation beyond Ukraine’s borders. With Western intelligence support and an increasingly aggressive approach, Ukraine has shown that it can strike at the heart of the Russian apparatus. Kiev seems intent on continuing this strategy, targeting not only the propagandists, but also the military leadership and those responsible for operations against civilians.

If the conflict on the ground remains uncertain, the secret war between the two intelligence agencies seems destined to intensify.

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(Photo: © AndKronos)