Ukrainian Security Service colonel shot dead in Kyiv reported to have planned 2015 killing of Russian militant Mozgovoi

The Times has reported that Ivan Voronych, a Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) colonel shot dead in Kyiv on 10 July, was the mastermind behind the 2015 murder of separatist and Ghost Brigade leader Aleksey Mozgovoi and participated in sea drone attacks against the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Source: The Times citing sources

Details: The Times reported that Voronych, who was 50 when he died, was a career intelligence officer from the Carpathian region who joined the SSU in 1998 and relocated to Kyiv for counterintelligence work following Russia’s hybrid invasion in 2014. A former close colleague portrayed him as "a calm, very quiet person who kept himself in excellent physical shape".

Voronych frequently volunteered for high-risk missions. Despite his age, he joined the SSU’s elite Special Group Alpha and took part in operations behind enemy lines in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, Ukrainian intelligence sources note.

One source claims that he orchestrated the ambush and assassination of Aleksey Mozgovoi, leader of the Russian-backed Ghost Brigade, in occupied Luhansk in 2015. Sources also allege Voronych deployed sea drones against the Russian Black Sea Fleet and served as a deputy under Colonel Roman Chervinskyi.

Ukrainian intelligence officers note that Voronych’s murder on 10 July was Russia’s first successful strike against a senior Ukrainian officer since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Sources in Ukrainian intelligence said the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) recruited two assassins from Azerbaijan via an organised crime syndicate in spring 2025. One, a woman, entered Ukraine from Moldova in May, while her partner was initially denied entry due to prior convictions but later managed to cross the border, prompting an SSU investigation into how he was able to enter the country.

CCTV captured the colonel’s killer fleeing after shooting his target from close range. Hundreds of SSU and police officers were mobilised to interview witnesses, review footage and trace suspicious mobile signals.

The SSU reported that the suspects attempted to hide in a village near Kyiv but were located within 72 hours and killed in a shootout after resisting arrest.

Update: The SSU press service has told Ukrainska Pravda that the information published in The Times, provided by anonymous sources, is not true.

Quote from the SSU: "In particular, the murdered SSU colonel Ivan Voronych had no connection to the ‘Nord Stream pipeline sabotage’, nor did the Ukrainian security services as a whole.

Nor was Colonel Voronych involved in any SSU special operations involving ‘the use of marine drones against the Russian Black Sea Fleet’ or ‘special operations in the enemy rear in Russia’s Kursk Oblast’."

Background:

• Colonel Ivan Voronych was shot dead in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district on 10 July. An Ukrainska Pravda source stated that at around 09:00, a man approached Voronych and fired five targeted shots from a pistol, then fled the scene of the crime.
• The New York Times reported that Voronych had taken part in a number of special operations, including the killing of Russian militant Arsen Pavlov, alias Motorola, and led a unit that advanced into Russia’s Kursk Oblast in 2024.
• On 13 July, the SSU carried out a special operation to eliminate the Russian agents who killed Colonel Ivan Voronych in Kyiv.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!