Ukraine Cites Mossad as Assassinations Multiply
Kyiv’s patiently constructed intelligence services and their assassins have more targets in their sights.
By David Kirichenko
May 21, 2025
Any peace agreement would be “only the beginning” for Ukrainian intelligence, he said. “These people will be punished wherever they are. They will be afraid not only to leave the territory of the Russian Federation, but to leave the house.”
The Ukrainians are already keeping that promise through a series of high-profile killings of senior officers inside Russia.
Vasyl Malyuk, who heads the SBU, was open about the job his organization has to do. “The position of the security service is clear and unambiguous: every crime of the aggressor must be punished,” he said.
Kyiv’s successes have deep roots. It is in a far stronger position to operate inside Russia than most foreign intelligence agencies. Many Ukrainians not only speak Russian fluently, it is their mother tongue. Many have relatives and friends there, and know the country intimately. Russian culture and behavior is well understood.
These advantages have been ruthlessly exploited to strike at high-value targets and individuals, not only very senior officers but also naval commanders whose vessels fired missiles at civilian communities, and units associated with such attacks. Significant resources are devoted to identifying war criminals like the regimental commander accused of murdering 13 civilians during the Bucha massacre.
The intelligence gathering, hunting, and killing are the culmination of a wider pattern that dates back to Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
Following the Euromaidan revolution, and former President Viktor Yanokoych’s flight to Russia, Ukraine‘s intelligence services were in disarray. Moscow had enjoyed a warm relationship with Kyiv under his presidency, and the old guard destroyed the offices of the main agency, the SBU, with many documents lost or taken to Russia. Ukraine was forced to rebuild from scratch, often recruiting young men from western Ukraine, who had never lived under Soviet rule.
Both the SBU and the Defense Intelligence Directorate (HUR), which is mainly focused on intelligence efforts abroad, needed support. The CIA was cautious about working closely with the SBU, due to its Soviet legacy, history of corruption, and entanglement in economic crimes, so, while the SBU got some help, HUR was the bigger beneficiary of Western intelligence support.
In 2015, then HUR chief, Gen. Valerii Kondratyuk, took significant risks to present the CIA with information on the Russians. The material was reportedly high grade and better than the US had received in a long time. A former US intelligence officer told ABC News that the Ukrainians’ “access was so significant. Here was the best friend of the Russians for many, many years. They knew things we just, frankly, had no idea of.”
CEPA
Terrorist attacks and assassinations would continue after a peace agreement. |
