Top Ukrainian spy gunned down in Kyiv, Russia blamed for assassination: report

A top Ukrainian spy was gunned down in Kyiv in broad daylight Thursday in an attack being blamed on Russia, reports said. 

Sources told Ukrainska Pravda that an unknown individual approached Col. Ivan Voronych of the Security Service of Ukraine around 9 a.m. local time and shot at him five times with a pistol before fleeing the scene. A video purportedly showing the ambush depicted a man being attacked while walking to a vehicle outside an apartment building. 

“A criminal investigation has been opened into the murder of an SSU employee in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district,” a spokesperson for the Ukrainian agency told the outlet. “The Security Service and the National Police are taking comprehensive measures to establish all the circumstances of the crime and bring those responsible to justice.” 

Voronych suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Ukrainska Pravda. The colonel led a division within Ukraine’s security service that focused on high-level special operations and counter-terrorism, The Telegraph reported. 

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“With five shots at close range while leaving the apartment today… the enemy killer did his dirty work,” former Ukrainian intelligence officer Roman Chervinsky told The Telegraph. 

Ihar Mosiychuk, a former Ukrainian parliament member, blamed Russian special services for orchestrating the hit, The Telegraph also reported. 

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“Police officers are establishing the circumstances of the shooting in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv,” the Kyiv Police wrote on Telegram. “Arriving on a call, law enforcement officers discovered the body of a man with a gunshot wound.” 

“The person involved in the crime is being identified, and measures are being taken to detain him,” police added.