SBU arrests a Russian-led agent who tried to kill a Melitopol official

Source: Ukraine’s Security Service

A Russian-hired assassin was arrested in Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday after he attempted to kill a senior official from the Melitopol City Council.

According to the SBU, the hitman attacked the official with a hammer at the staircase of his residential building inflicting serious injuries.

The assailant posed as a utility worker performing maintenance in the building. After the attack, he planned to flee to Russian-occupied territory in the Zaporizhzhia region ve, using a smuggling route typically employed by draft dodgers.

The official survived while the SBU operatives tracked the killer and arrested him.

The suspect, identified as a repeat offender from occupied Melitopol, had caught the attention of the Russian intelligence while serving a prison sentence in Russia for premeditated murder. In June 2024, the FSB recruited him and sent him to a specialized training camp in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia where he underwent training in firearms, knife combat, and covert operations.

Disguised as a refugee, the killer arrived in Zaporizhzhia and began monitoring the official’s work and residence addresses, as well as his daily travel routes. He frequently changed his rented apartments and communicated with his Russian handler using fake usernames in an anonymous messaging app.

The Russian intelligence officers alllegedly offered to buy him a home in Melitopol once he did his dirty job.

The SBU has charged the man of treason and murder under Art. 111, 115 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The suspect is currently in custody and faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.