Two years ago, on June 27, 2017, Col. Yuriy Voznyi of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was the third victim in a string of deaths of high-ranking Ukrainian servicemen who were targeted through car bombs. Col. Voznyi was sitting in a passenger vehicle when it exploded in the Kostiantynivka district of Donetsk Oblast.
The military prosecutor’s office investigating the death had classified it as a terrorist act, and the SBU said Col. Voznyi’s death marked the 23rd casualty that the agency had suffered since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine.
Some experts declared that Russia was specifically targeting an emerging cadre of proven field leaders.
Also on June 27, Col. Maksym Shapoval was killed in a car explosion in Kyiv. He was collecting evidence with Ukrainian reconnaissance divisions to substantiate Kyiv’s case of Russian war crimes against the Kremlin at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Col. Shapoval had planned and led recon raids deep into enemy-held territory in Russian occupied Donbas. He was visiting Kyiv while on leave from a fresh stint on the war front. A short time after the assassination, a cyberattack was launched against Ukraine. He was posthumously promoted to major general in 2017.
Another SBU officer, Lt.-Col. Oleksandr Khararberiush, deputy head of the local counterintelligence unit in Donetsk Oblast, died in a car blast on March 31, 2017, in Mariupol. He was a thorn in Moscow’s side as he went after Russian saboteur groups and their Ukrainian collaborators in the region.
In September 2017, the Kalynivka ammunition depot exploded and forced the evacuation of between 24,000 to 30,000 people, but no fatalities were reported and schools resumed classes on October 2. Also in 2017, an explosion in March at a munitions depot at Balakliia near Kharkiv forced the evacuation of about 20,000 people.
“This was obviously a vendetta by the Kremlin,” said Oleksiy Melnyk, co-director of foreign relations and international security programs for the Razumkov Center. Over the years, Col. Khararberiush “made the enemy’s life really hard.” Put together, the three deaths in car blasts “are obviously a trend,” Mr. Melnyk added. “They were coordinated from abroad, most likely by Moscow, but not necessarily carried out by Russians… it could have been done by Ukrainian [collaborators].”
Similarly, Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was living and reporting in Ukraine, died in a car explosion on July 20, 2016, in Kyiv during his morning commute to work and the crime remains unsolved. An independent investigation by journalists implicated the involvement of the SBU.
Source: “Moscow’s hand seen in three deaths in car blasts of Ukrainian servicemen,” by Mark Raczkiewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 2-7, 2017.