Ivan Voronych

Ivan Voronych (also transliterated Voronich) was a colonel of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) who was shot dead in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv on July 10, 2025 (see 2025 Kyiv SBU Assassination). The SBU press service confirmed that an SBU employee had been killed and that a criminal case had been opened under article 348 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which covers attempts on the life of a law-enforcement employee or serviceman.¹

Career

Details of his career come from reporting that cites unnamed intelligence sources. The Times reported, according to Ukrainska Pravda, that Voronych was 50 when he died, came from the Carpathian region, joined the SSU in 1998, and moved to Kyiv for counterintelligence work after 2014. The Times cited Ukrainian intelligence sources for the statements that he joined the SBU's Special Operations Center Alpha, took part in operations in Russia's Kursk Oblast, and served as a deputy under Colonel Roman Chervinskyi, and one source claimed that he had orchestrated the 2015 ambush that killed Aleksei Mozgovoi, the leader of the Ghost Brigade in occupied Luhansk Oblast. The Times also reported that sources alleged that he deployed sea drones against the Russian Black Sea Fleet.²

The SBU press service told Ukrainska Pravda that the information in The Times, "provided by anonymous sources, is not true". It stated that Voronych "had no connection to the 'Nord Stream pipeline sabotage', nor did the Ukrainian security services as a whole", and that he was not involved in SBU operations involving marine drones against the Black Sea Fleet or special operations in the rear of Russia's Kursk Oblast.²

The New York Times reported, according to Meduza, that Voronych had for a time commanded the special operations unit known as the Fifth Directorate, which receives technical support from the Central Intelligence Agency and oversees assassination missions such as the 2016 killing of Arsen Pavlov, known by the nom de guerre Motorola, a commander of pro-Russian formations in eastern Ukraine. Another former Ukrainian intelligence operative, Ivan Stupak, told the outlet NV that the unit's work included such operations.³ Ukrainska Pravda summarised the New York Times report as stating that he had taken part in a number of special operations, including the killing of Pavlov, and had led a unit that advanced into Russia's Kursk Oblast in 2024; the SBU press service denied that he was involved in special operations in the Kursk Oblast.² The Mapping Militants Project at Stanford University reports that a small group called Phoenix, affiliated with the Misanthropic Division, used the Misanthropic Division's name and flag when claiming responsibility for the Pavlov bombing, that the Misanthropic Division rejected the claim, and that experts were generally skeptical that either group had the skills and support network to carry out the attack.⁴

Mozgovoi's convoy was bombed and shot at near Alchevsk on May 23, 2015. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that the separatists blamed Kyiv, that Kyiv denied involvement and pointed to Mozgovoi's rivals within the separatist movement, and that answers to the question of who carried out the killing differed according to the speaker, with candidates including rival separatists, Russia, the United States and a pro-Ukrainian commando unit.⁵

Killing

According to Ukrainska Pravda's source, at about 09:00 on July 10, 2025 a man approached Voronych and fired five shots from a pistol, then fled. Voronych died at the scene.²⁶ Radio NV quoted Stupak as saying that the killing was clearly a contract hit, with five suppressed shots, no argument, an early morning and a carefully planned operation.⁶

SBU account

On July 13, 2025 the SBU head, Lieutenant General Vasyl Maliuk, said in a video that SBU officers had been conducting an arrest operation against an "agent-and-combat group of the Russian Federal Security Service", routed to Ukraine in advance, which three days earlier "murdered an SBU officer, our brother-in-arms, Colonel Ivan Voronych". According to the SBU investigation, a man and a woman carried out the killing; their handler ordered them to follow Voronych to establish his schedule and routes, and later gave them coordinates of a stash holding a firearm and suppressor. The SBU statement said that the members of the cell began to resist and were killed during the operation in Kyiv Oblast. Maliuk said in the video: "the only prospect of the enemy on the territory of Ukraine is death."⁷ Police said that day that the killers were foreign nationals and did not disclose their country of origin.⁶

Ukrainska Pravda also reported, citing The Times, that Ukrainian intelligence sources said the FSB had recruited the two assassins from Azerbaijan through an organised crime syndicate in spring 2025, that the woman entered Ukraine from Moldova in May, and that the man was at first refused entry because of prior convictions but later crossed the border, which prompted an SSU investigation.²

White Phoenix claim

On July 16, 2025 the Kyiv Post reported that White Phoenix, the Ukrainian cell of The Base, posted on Telegram: "We, the White Phoenix organization, are proud of our comrades who are cleansing Ukraine from the dirty-blooded horde! This action is a carefully planned warning to the regime", and "The execution of the SBU colonel is not the end, but only the beginning." The Kyiv Post reported that Ukrainian authorities had not confirmed whether the killing was tied to White Phoenix.⁸

The Guardian, according to Meduza, reported that its counterterrorism sources found the claim credible. An analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Steven Rai, told the Guardian that The Base had been active in Ukraine since March 2025 and had carried out at least ten arson attacks, and that its role in the Voronych killing was unverified. The Guardian also noted allegations that Nazzaro, whom it described as a "semi-defected American" living in Saint Petersburg, is a Kremlin spy. The founder of The Base, Rinaldo Nazzaro, told the Guardian: "I have no personal involvement in this incident and don't know who is responsible for it."⁹