A Ukrainian spy chief was gunned down in broad daylight in Kyiv. A report from Telegram blogger New Military Columnist read: “The head of one of the departments of the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) Special Operations Centre, Colonel Ivan Voronich, was killed in Kyiv. An unknown person fired from a pistol with a silencer, after which he disappeared.”

Emergency services rushed to the scene on July 10 to find the body of a man with a gunshot wound, local publication Glavcom reports. A statement by the Kyiv Police force read: “Police officers are establishing the circumstances of the shooting in the Holosiivskyi district of the capital. Arriving at the call, law enforcement officers discovered the body of a man with a gunshot wound. Currently, investigative and operational teams from the district and main police departments, criminal investigation officers, dog handlers, and other services are working at the scene. All circumstances of the incident are being established.”

The incident happened in the Holosiivs’kyi district in the Ukrainian capital.

This comes after a string of deaths on Russian soil of high-profile Russian officials.

In December, the Ukrainian SBU claimed responsibility for the killing of the head of Russia‘s chemical, radiological and biological weapons unit – Lt Gen Igor Kirillov.

In April, a senior Russian general, Yaroslav Moskalik, died following the explosion of a Volkswagen Golf car that had been rigged with an improvised explosive device stuffed with pellets.

And in July, a Russian major general, Mikhail Yevgenyevich Gudkov, was killed in a Ukrainian precision strike in a cross-border attack.