Moscow fights with Ukrainian hands: the hidden assassinations uncovered
In one of the most insidious forms of covert warfare, Russian intelligence services have managed to lure Ukrainians – some former soldiers, others grief-stricken civilians – into carrying out assassinations against prominent Ukrainian figures. Believing they were defending their homeland, they were in fact being used as pawns by Moscow.
The story that exposed this tactic began in Kyiv, when a former Ukrainian soldier, armed with an AK-12 assault rifle, was preparing to shoot a supposed “traitor” alleged to be working for Russia. For weeks, he had tracked his target, awaiting the decisive moment. But just as he was about to pull the trigger, a special unit of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) stopped him.
Only then did the deception come to light: the “Ukrainian officers” who had contacted him were actually agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), and the intended victim was not a traitor but Major Serhiy Filimonov, a respected commander of the “Da Vinci Wolves” field battalion.
This incident was only part of a broader pattern. Four of the six high-profile assassinations carried out recently inside Ukraine were committed by Ukrainians who had been manipulated, deceived, or emotionally exploited to become tools in Moscow’s hands.
The most recent case occurred on August 30, when former Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Andriy Parubiy was assassinated in Lviv. Investigations revealed that the killer, 52-year-old Mykhailo Stelnykov, had been manipulated by Russian operatives after the disappearance of his son near Bakhmut in 2023. He was reportedly persuaded that killing Parubiy would allow him to recover his son’s body.
Major Filimonov, himself a target of one of these failed plots, explained that Russia capitalizes on grief and rage to recruit. In his words: “Russia tries to turn psychologically fragile individuals into killers. The greatest anger among Ukrainians stems from missile strikes and drone attacks on civilian neighborhoods, and the Russians exploit this anger. In my case, they convinced a man that I was a Russian agent directing strikes on Kyiv.”
The list of victims is longer. In July 2024, former MP Iryna Farion was murdered in Lviv by an 18-year-old linked to Russian neo-Nazi online groups. In March, activist Dmytro Hanul was gunned down in Odesa by a Ukrainian army deserter. In May, a woman from Odesa shot activist Serhiy Sternenko in Kyiv after being persuaded by a man she met online that he was a “traitor.” He promised to help her obtain a kidney transplant in return.
The only exception in this series was the assassination of Colonel Ivan Voronech, a former SBU officer, killed on July 10 by two professional hitmen believed to be Azerbaijani nationals working for Russia. Both were themselves killed three days later during a raid by Ukrainian intelligence forces in Kyiv.
According to the SBU, these Russian tactics are relatively new. Intelligence officers disguise themselves as Ukrainian agents, handing down fake orders under the guise of national duty.
The attempted assassination of Major Filimonov illustrates how refined the method is. The duped soldier received a call from a woman posing as an SBU officer. She accused him of financially aiding Russia by purchasing medical equipment online and sent him a forged summons. Under the threat of prosecution, he was later promised immunity in exchange for cooperation. He was relocated to Kyiv, told to rent an apartment near Filimonov, and persuaded that the well-known officer was actually a Russian spy.
The operation ended only moments before its execution. Until the very end, the manipulated soldier convinced himself he was acting patriotically, declaring to his fake handlers that he was willing to kill “for his country,” even without payment.
