Ukraine’s security agency said on Sunday it tracked down and killed Russian agents suspected of shooting one of its senior officers in the Ukrainian capital. The security service of Ukraine, or SBU, said in a statement that the suspected Russian agents were killed in the Kyiv region after they offered resistance to arrest.
A video released by the agency showed two bodies lying on the ground. The agency said earlier that a man and a woman were suspected to be involved in Thursday’s assassination of Ivan Voronych, an SBU colonel, in a bold daylight attack that was caught on surveillance cameras. Media reports claimed that Colonel Voronych was involved in covert operations in Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine and reportedly helped organise Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region last year.
After a series of massive attacks across Ukraine involving hundreds of exploding drones, Russia launched 60 drones overnight, Ukraine’s air force said.
It said 20 of them were shot down and 20 others were jammed.
The Ukrainian authorities reported that four civilians had been killed and 13 others injured in Russian attacks on the Donetsk and Kherson regions since Saturday (July 12).
Volodymyr Zelensky has said over 1,800 Russian drones have been launched at Ukraine over the last seven days. He added that Moscow has also used more than 1,200 guided aerial bombs and 83 missiles of various types to attack regions across the country.
“The Russians are intensifying terror against cities and communities to increasingly intimidate our people.”
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian president said Ukraine’s air defence forces are “achieving good results”, particularly its interceptor drones. He added that stopping these drone attacks is the way “to bring diplomacy into motion sooner”.
Russia launched one of its heaviest aerial attacks of the war on Friday night, striking regions across Ukraine. Kyiv’s air force recorded 26 cruise missiles and 597 attack drones fired at the country, with more than 20 missiles and the “vast majority” of drones destroyed, according to Mr Zelenskyy.
Mr Zelenskyy vowed to continue Ukraine’s “active drone operations” on Russian territory after the brutal attack.