SBU colonel shot dead in Kyiv by unknown assailant — Novaya Gazeta Europe
A colonel in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has been shot dead by an unknown assailant in the country's capital Kyiv, Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported on Thursday.
Colonel Ivan Voronych, who former Ukrainian intelligence officer Roman Chervinsky says 'founded an initiative in the SBU causing many problems for [Russia],' was shot five times at close range as he left his apartment building on Thursday morning, according to several Ukrainian news sources citing sources in Kyiv law enforcement agencies.
Insider UA, a Ukrainian political news Telegram channel, said the shooter fled the scene of the murder in an SUV, and their identity was yet to be established.
'The Security Service and the National Police are taking comprehensive measures to clarify all the circumstances of the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice,' the SBU's press service told Suspilne, a Ukrainian news outlet.
A former Ukrainian MP, Ihor Mosiychuk, wrote on Telegram Thursday that Voronych was a 'senior operational officer' in the SBU's Special Group Alpha. Russian investigative news outlet IStories said the unit was responsible for countering terrorist attacks, conducting reconnaissance and sabotage in other countries, and protecting Ukrainian government officials.
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At a time when Vladimir Putin needs friends in his neighbourhood, he appears instead to be losing them in the South Caucasus. After two centuries of Russian involvement in the region, balancing the historical rivalry and at times acting as mediator between Armenia and Azerbaijan, there is growing speculation that the two countries are preparing a major reset in relations. Anna Matveeva Visiting Senior Research Fellow, King's Russia Institute, King's College London When Armenia's prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, met the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, in Abu Dhabi on 10 July, they reportedly came close to agreeing a peace treaty. The big question is whether, if these two countries can iron out mistrust and violence born of the territorial conflict, there will still be a role for Russia in the South Caucasus. 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After 9/11, when combating international terrorism became a global priority, Azerbaijan put measures in place to prevent the transfer of fighters and weapons through its territory to the war in Chechnya, which further improved relations with Moscow. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan speaks to Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, 24 October 2024. Photo: EPA/ MAXIM SHEMETOV At this stage, Azerbaijan was pursuing what it described as a 'multi-vector' foreign policy, which allowed it to develop ties with a variety of countries, including the US, Russia and others to whom it sold oil. While remaining in the Commonwealth of Independent States, it did not sign up to the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). Armenia, by contrast, was a fully participating member of the CSTO. Having signed an Eternal Friendship Treaty with Russia in 1997, this was a clear strategic choice for Armenia and one that was partly motivated by long-standing historical ties. Indeed, it was Nagorno-Karabakh which really soured relations between Armenia and Moscow. Russia was traditionally seen as a defender of Christianity in the days of the Ottoman empire. Many people had fled massacres in Western Armenia (in modern-day Turkey) in 1915 to come under the protection of the Russian tsar. But Armenia also saw Moscow as a vital security guarantor against an increasingly militarised Azerbaijan, which was determined to recover control of Nagorno-Karabakh and other areas occupied by Armenia. Indeed, it was Nagorno-Karabakh which really soured relations between Armenia and Moscow. In 2020, when — aided by Turkey — Azerbaijan launched its offensive to retake the territory, Russia failed to come to the aid of its CSTO ally. This was expected, given that relations had begun to deteriorate in 2018 when Pashinyan came to power in Armenia. In hindsight, most commentators believe Russia had become tired of Armenia's intransigence over the plan, agreed in Madrid in 2007, for it to cede back the six districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan. Instead, Moscow brokered a ceasefire agreement and deployed 2,000 peacekeepers along the Lachin corridor, a strip of land connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. But these troops also failed to intervene when an Azerbaijani offensive retook the whole of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023, forcing the population of about 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee. An Armenian church in the town of Shushi, Nagorno-Karabakh, overlooks a crater caused by Azerbaijani shelling, 29 October 2020. Photo: EPA / HAYK BAGHDASARYAN /PHOTOLURE Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, meanwhile, have gone downhill rapidly. 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Geography matters, as neighbouring Georgia demonstrates — efforts to cut ties with Russia by its former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, have been partially reversed by the current government, which increasingly leans towards Moscow. In the cases of Armenia and Azerbaijan, economic ties, transport links and human connections still favour a relationship with Russia. So, a temporary breakdown in political relations can be mended if all three leaders demonstrate enough statesmanship to sail through the troubled waters. This article was first published by The Conversation. Views expressed in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the position of Novaya Gazeta Europe
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