Does the “Ukrainian Mossad” exist? The facts speak for themselves
After the full-scale Russian invasion at the end of February 2022, the idea of creating a “Ukrainian Mossad” – a special structure that would deal with the elimination of traitors – has become increasingly attractive in our society. Although this idea had been voiced multiple times since 2014, when Russia seized Crimea and certain areas of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, official confirmations of the existence of a secret avenger organization have only started appearing recently.
The activities of the “Ukrainian Mossad” have been repeatedly confirmed by Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. For instance, he made a corresponding statement in early October 2022 during the national television marathon “United News.” In December 2023, sources from Radio Liberty within the security agencies reported that the elimination of former Ukrainian MP Illia Kyva was a special operation of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), although SBU head Vasyl Maliuk did not confirm this. However, in March 2024, he did reveal some details in an interview with the ICTV channel.
The list of Ukrainian citizens who have sided with the enemy and acted against their own state numbers in the hundreds. For instance, in 2023 alone, according to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, 400 traitors, collaborators, and informers were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, seven of them to life imprisonment.
However, retribution reaches traitors not only through the courts. Many of them have been eliminated as a result of secret operations by special services or by the hands of people’s avengers acting at their own discretion. One way or another, retribution will reach everyone who has committed crimes against Ukrainian statehood.
So, let’s recall the most notable eliminations of traitors and collaborators.
Alexey Mozgovoy
On May 23, 2015, Alexey Mozgovoy (born in 1975 in Nizhnyaya Duvanka, Svatovo District, Luhansk Region), better known as the leader of the illegal armed group “Ghost,” was shot dead in his own car.
In the spring of 2014, after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Mozgovoy returned to Ukraine from St. Petersburg, where he had been working. He led the terrorist armed group “Luhansk People’s Militia” (Ghost). On April 6, he participated in the storming of the Luhansk SBU building. Subsequently, he relocated to the “Yaseni” resort near Sverdlovsk (now Dovzhansk), where he organized a military camp to train his fighters. In May of the same year, the “Ghost” battalion relocated to Lysychansk, where it seized the territory of production site No. 2 of the Proletary glass plant. After the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, he was forced to leave the city and move deeper into the occupied territories of Luhansk.
According to the Da Vinci AG analytical group, Mozgovoy’s elimination is linked to a special operation by Russian special services, which are deliberately eliminating commanders of units that have conflicts with the “official” leaders appointed by Russia to manage the pseudo-state formations.
In the summer of 2023, terrorist Igor Girkin, who commanded the capture of Sloviansk in 2014, confirmed this version in his latest video blog, stating that in 2015, the order to eliminate the so-called commander of the “Ghost” illegal armed formation, Alexey Mozgovoy, was carried out by mercenaries from the “Wagner PMC.” The order came from the GRU of Russia.
Pavel Dremov (“Batya”)
On December 12, 2015, the commander of the “Stakhanov and Pervomaisk militants” (Luhansk), the commander of the armed formation “Cossack National Guard of the Great Don Army,” Pavel Dremov with the call sign “Batya” (born in 1976 in Stakhanov (Kadiivka)), was eliminated.
The car with Dremov exploded on the Pervomaisk – Stakhanov highway. The militant was heading to Stakhanov to the Gorky Palace of Culture, where his wedding with Russian director Tatyana from St. Petersburg was to take place.
As noted in a Radio Liberty article, Dremov died in a manner that has become classic for the infighting among Luhansk separatists. He, like several other well-known collaborators eliminated at that time, belonged to the so-called “separatist opposition.” They all tried to build their own principalities in the separatist-occupied cities of southern Luhansk. They all openly accused the main leader of the “LPR,” Igor Plotnitsky, of stealing humanitarian aid and trading coal, thereby undermining his authority in the eyes of Kremlin curators.
There was also widespread belief in the involvement of Russian special services in the elimination of independent field commanders of militants.
Igor Plotnitsky
On August 6, 2016, around 8 a.m. in the Vatutin quarter, in the eastern part of Luhansk, a loud explosion occurred: unknown individuals blew up a Toyota Land Cruiser jeep belonging to the head of the “LPR” formation, Igor Plotnitsky (born in 1964 in the Chernivtsi region). As a result of the explosion, reportedly, one of the terrorist leader’s bodyguards was killed, two others were injured, and Plotnitsky himself ended up in intensive care in serious condition. However, just a day after the assassination attempt, he was discharged from the hospital, which fueled the version of the attempt being a “self-promotion” stunt.
After this incident, Plotnitsky remained at the head of the occupation authorities until November 24, 2017, when the “LPR Minister of State Security” Leonid Pasechnik announced that the “head of the republic” had resigned due to health reasons. Thus, Plotnitsky was removed from his position as a result of a coup and was forced to flee to Russia.
Subsequently, the Apostrophe publication, citing its sources close to the top of the Luhansk militants, reported that in Moscow, Plotnitsky was detained and gave testimony for about two weeks. He was not arrested and lives in the Russian capital, but every step he takes is monitored by the special services.
Yevhen Zhilin
On September 19, 2016, in Moscow, in the elite café “Veterok” in the settlement of Gorki-2, Yevhen Zhilin, the founder of the pro-Russian criminal organization “Oplot,” supported by Russian special services, was shot in the head and killed.
Former law enforcement officer Yevhen Volodymyrovych Zhilin (born in 1976 in Kharkiv) became known during the Revolution of Dignity (December 2013 — February 2014). He was an active participant in the Kharkiv “anti-Maidan,” under his leadership, hundreds of recruited “athletes” and criminals participated in large-scale attacks on Kyiv residents for two months.
After the shooting of the Euromaidan on February 21, 2014, Zhilin fled Ukraine. He was put on the criminal wanted list by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, accused of arson of vehicles, kidnapping, and beating Euromaidan participants.
Zhilin played an important role in the early months of 2014 as a coordinator and financier of militants in Donbas. He actively supported the criminal organization of Alexander Zakharchenko, whom Russian handlers later decided to make the “Prime Minister of the DPR.”
As reported by the media, Zhilin’s murder was professional. The killers tracked his route and arrived at the restaurant before Zhilin himself. They acted with precision. The assassin escaped quickly, changing transportation multiple times. The settlement’s security and surveillance systems failed to react in time, allowing the killers to escape without hindrance, and a quick search yielded no results.
His demonstrative elimination is a clear example of the disgraceful fate awaiting Ukraine’s traitors, whom their Russian masters do not regard as people.
Armen Bagiryan (“Baggi”)
In early October 2016, Russian mercenary Armen Bagiryan (born in 1974 in Moscow, Russia) met his end. He was found shot in a car near the village of Zholtoye in the temporarily occupied Slovianoserbsk district of the Luhansk region.
According to sources, Armen Bagiryan was the “curator” of a smuggling channel for supplying food, consumer goods, narcotics, and alcohol from Ukraine to the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk. He reported directly to the “MGB LNR” personnel. It is believed that the elimination of Armen Bagiryan, known by the pseudonym “Baggi,” is a continuation of the war for the redistribution of financial flows and spheres of economic influence in the so-called “LNR.”
Arsen Pavlov (“Motorola”)
On October 16, 2016, one of the most notorious militants in Donbas, Russian mercenary Arsen Pavlov (born in 1983 in Ukhta, Komi, Russia), known by the call sign “Motorola,” was eliminated. This daring special operation was carried out by the Fifth Directorate of the Counterintelligence Department of the SBU.
A former car wash worker from Rostov-on-Don, who had participated in the Second Chechen War during his military service, Pavlov joined the Russian-controlled militants in Donbas at the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014. He led the “Sparta” battalion. Pavlov was notorious for executing Ukrainian prisoners of war after the battles for Donetsk Airport. By his own admission, he shot at least 15 POWs.
Journalist Yuri Butusov revealed details of the special operation in October 2021. According to him, two volunteers were involved in the plan to blow up the elevator in the Donetsk building where the separatist lived. One was a trained professional, and the other an outside agent. Under the guise of an elevator maintenance crew, the saboteurs were to open the elevator shaft and place mines on the cabin.
The journalist emphasized that the SBU operatives also took care to eliminate all risks to the civilians living in the building. For this reason, a listening device was installed in the elevator: when Pavlov entered the building with his bodyguard, the agent called “Motorola” to confirm his location. At the moment when the phone rang in the elevator and the terrorist answered, the explosion occurred.
The operatives who carried out this extremely daring special operation safely left Donetsk.
Oleg Anashchenko
On February 4, 2017, an explosion occurred in the temporarily occupied Luhansk. It turned out that a car bomb killed one of the high-ranking representatives of the occupation authorities, Oleg Anashchenko (born in 1968 in Rovenki), who headed the “people’s militia of the LPR.” His death was confirmed by the OSCE monitoring mission operating at the time in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions occupied by pro-Russian criminal groups.
Most analysts and experts agreed that this elimination was another link in the chain of assassinations of separatists suspected of plotting a coup against the regime of Plotnitsky, who was then leading the “LPR” terrorist group. Thus, he became a victim of internal political infighting.
However, statements were made in the Ukrainian information space that Anashchenko faced retribution for the downing of a Ukrainian Il-76 transport plane near Luhansk airport and the death of 49 Ukrainian soldiers on June 14, 2014. Anashchenko was the commander of all air defense units among the Luhansk terrorists in June 2014 and was directly responsible for the transport aircraft’s downing.
Mikhail Tolstykh (“Givi”)
On February 8, 2017, in the temporarily occupied Makiivka, militant Mikhail Tolstykh (born in 1980 in Ilovaisk), better known as “Givi,” was eliminated in his office.
The headquarters of this war criminal was located in the building of the Makiivka State Design Institute. After a previous assassination attempt near Avdiivka, the injured “Givi” rarely left his headquarters, fearing another attempt and effectively living in his office.
According to the occupying authorities, a Shmel rocket infantry flamethrower was used to eliminate the militant. Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups (DRGs) were declared the main suspects in Tolstykh’s death.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense confirmed Givi’s death. The ministry recalled that Mikhail Tolstykh had been actively involved in combat against Ukrainian forces since the spring of 2014, quickly rising to become one of the propaganda heroes for militants and Russian media.
Givi was responsible for shelling towns and villages with heavy weaponry, torturing Ukrainian POWs, cruel treatment of civilians, looting, and other war crimes. For example, there is a video where Tolstykh tortures and humiliates captured Ukrainian soldiers, including Lieutenant Colonel Oleh Kuzminykh, commander of the 90th Battalion of the 81st Airmobile Brigade.
Alexander Zakharchenko
On August 31, 2018, the head of the terrorist group “DNR,” Alexander Zakharchenko (born in 1976 in Donetsk), died in an explosion at the “Separ” restaurant in Donetsk.
Among the injured was the so-called “Minister of Revenue and Duties” of the terrorist organization, Alexander Timofeev, known by the nickname “Tashkent.” Timofeev had a reputation as the grey cardinal of the “DNR.” Initially, reports claimed he had died, but he appeared in person at Zakharchenko’s funeral a few days later.
The professionalism of the preparation for the elimination of the head of the Donetsk separatists is noteworthy. Vadym Skibitsky, a representative of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, stated on the “5th Channel” that, according to Ukrainian military intelligence, the FSB was behind Zakharchenko’s assassination. He emphasized that Russia was “cleaning up” those in the fake republics who could testify about Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in international courts.
The fate of Alexander Timofeev (“Tashkent”) took a more convoluted turn. In 2018, he left Donetsk and moved to Russia, reportedly for good. His name resurfaced in the news in 2022 when a Russian court accused the former “Minister of Revenue and Duties of the DNR” of attempted large-scale fraud and sentenced him to three and a half years in prison.
Timofeev did not act alone; he collaborated with Ihor Sosnovsky, a former advisor to ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine under fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych, Mykola Azarov. Reports indicated that the suspects promised to facilitate the cessation of criminal prosecution for a businessman for five million dollars, but Sosnovsky received a suspended sentence in April.
The prosecution requested a four-year prison sentence for “Tashkent,” the minimum term under the relevant statute. However, the Moscow court issued a sentence below the minimum possible limit, considering the defendant’s status as a combat veteran, his title of “Hero of the DNR,” and his injuries.
Serhiy Horenko
On September 16, 2022, in Luhansk, former Ukrainian law enforcement officer Serhiy Horenko (born in 1982 in Yubileyne, Luhansk region), who held the position of “Prosecutor General” of the so-called “LPR,” died in an explosion in his own office.
As Vasyl Malyuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine, revealed in an interview on ICTV in March 2024, Horenko was blown up in his office along with his deputy by 800 grams of C-4 plastic explosive. According to Malyuk, this traitor had sentenced Ukrainian soldiers to death. Despite this, the head of the SBU did not officially confirm the involvement of Ukrainian special services in Horenko’s elimination.
Kirill Stremousov
On November 9, 2022, in the Henichesk area, Kyrylo Stremousov (born in 1976 in Holmovskyi, Donetsk region), the deputy of Saldo, died. According to the official version presented by Russia, he died in a car accident, but in Ukraine, there is speculation that he was eliminated by his own people. The incident occurred a few days before the de-occupation of Kherson.
However, on October 18, 2023, the Malynovsky District Court of Odesa sentenced Stremousov to 9 years for collaborationism, 13 years with confiscation of property for treason, and life imprisonment for treason during an armed conflict. The court also ordered the collaborator to pay 13,000 hryvnias in court costs.
The court noted that the Ukrainian authorities still could not officially confirm the collaborator’s death, which is why his prosecution continued even after the reports of the fatal car accident.
Ivan Prykhodko
On December 21, 2022, during a missile strike at the “Shesh-Besh” restaurant in temporarily occupied Donetsk, Ivan Prykhodko (born in 1970 in Donetsk), appointed by the occupiers as the “mayor” of the occupation administration of Horlivka, was injured. The strike also wounded Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of Roscosmos and leader of the “Tsar’s Wolves” military advisor group, who was celebrating his birthday at the venue, and “DNR Prime Minister” Vitaliy Khotsenko.
According to media reports, Rogozin sustained shrapnel wounds to the soft tissues of his head, a penetrating shrapnel wound to his buttocks, and a penetrating shrapnel wound to his left thigh. He was hospitalized. Those accompanying him were also injured.
Russian State Duma deputy Alexey Zhuravlev, who was also present at Rogozin’s birthday celebration, is convinced that the attack was guided by someone. According to him, there were three targeted hits.
Ihor Kornet
On May 15, 2023, an explosion occurred in a barbershop in temporarily occupied Luhansk, which the occupying authorities classified as an assassination attempt on Igor Kornet (born in 1973 in Luhansk), the so-called “Minister of Internal Affairs” of the “LNR” group. According to local media, seven people were injured in the explosion.
The SBU reported that Igor Kornet personally organized tortures. Before the Russo-Ukrainian war, he worked in the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, but in 2014, he sided with Russia. Kornet survived the assassination attempt but was left severely disabled.
Oleh Tsaryov
On October 27, 2023, an assassination attempt was made on former Ukrainian MP Oleh Tsaryov (born in 1970 in Dnipro), who openly expressed pro-Russian views and supported the aggressor after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war. At the time, he was at the Kirov Sanatorium in Yalta in temporarily occupied Crimea. The SBU claimed responsibility for the attempt to eliminate the collaborator.
Details of the special operation were not disclosed. It is known only that Tsaryov was hit by two gunshots.
“He has long been on the list of traitors who must answer for their crimes. Tsaryov is an absolutely legitimate target. He is not just a fanatic of the ‘Russian world,’ but a person who personally came with Russian tanks to capture Kyiv,” a source in Ukrainian intelligence said.
It is worth recalling that in March 2022, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced suspicion of Tsaryov for encroaching on the territorial integrity of Ukraine and collaborationism. On May 11, 2023, the SBU announced another suspicion against him—high treason committed under martial law.
Mykhailo Filipponeko
On November 8, 2023, in temporarily occupied Luhansk, Mykhailo Filipponeko (born in 1975 in Luhansk), a so-called deputy of the “supreme council of the LNR” from the Russian LDPR party, was eliminated in a car explosion.
Filipponeko was involved in organizing torture in the occupied territories of Luhansk region, where POWs and civilian hostages were subjected to inhumane tortures. Filipponeko personally tortured people.
Ukrainian intelligence confirmed their involvement in the traitor’s elimination. The GUR reported that the operation was carried out jointly with representatives of the resistance movement.
Vladlen Tatarsky (Maksym Fomin)
On April 2, 2023, Russian propagandist and collaborator Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maksym Fomin, born in 1982 in Makiivka) died in an explosion in St. Petersburg, Russia, after being given a statuette with explosives.
According to SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk, before 2014, Vladlen Tatarsky was imprisoned in the Donetsk region. Later, DNR members freed him, after which Tatarsky began fighting in various illegal armed formations and killing Ukrainians. He was part of the so-called “Pyatnashka” and “Vostok” battalions.
Later, he gained some public prominence and became a mouthpiece for Donbas and the Wagner PMC. He had 1.5 million followers. He boasted about killing and raping. He was involved with Ukrainian POWs, introducing an underground prison subculture and organizing rapes of our POWs.
“Thus, he karmically answered to the Ukrainian people. You remember that café in St. Petersburg, affiliated with Wagner, and that statuette was handed to him in the form of his bust, golden in color. He took it, and there were 400 grams of thermobaric explosives, and it worked like a razor on him,” said Vasyl Malyuk.
Vasyl Prozorov
On April 12, 2024, in Moscow, a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado SUV belonging to former SBU officer Vasyl Prozorov (born in 1975 in Berdiansk) exploded. Prozorov had spied for Russia for four years since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war. The explosion occurred right after the driver started the ignition.
Prozorov survived: according to media reports, he sustained leg injuries and was hospitalized. The main theory is that an explosive device detonated in the car, with the epicenter of the explosion under the driver’s seat.
Vasyl Prozorov worked for the SBU from 1999 to 2018. After his dismissal, he fled to Russia, where, on March 25, 2019, he held a press conference and admitted to being a Russian spy. He claimed that since April 2014, he had voluntarily, for ideological reasons, assisted Russian special services in obtaining information about the activities of Ukrainian security forces, particularly in the ATO area.
Why Traitors and Collaborators Should Watch Their Backs
As you may have noticed, some collaborators and traitors were relatively lucky—they survived, though not unscathed, after assassination attempts. Some notorious henchmen of the occupiers were reportedly eliminated by their own masters. Perhaps only after victory will we learn who was truly behind the high-profile special operations to eliminate enemy mercenaries: Ukrainian special services, the resistance movement, or whether they were victims of internal criminal disputes among the occupiers.
Several assassinations of field commanders and representatives of the occupation authorities that occurred in 2016-2017 in the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk occupied by Russia initially seem to fit the classic pattern of criminal showdowns.
Figures like Mozgovoy, Dremov, Anashchenko, and Bagiryan were eliminated in their SUVs using planted explosives. A similar method was used in the attempt on Plotnitsky. At that time, pro-Russian militants accused Ukrainian sabotage groups of organizing these murders and even presented videos of confessions from individuals they claimed were Ukrainian spies and perpetrators.
Whether these accusations hold any truth remains unknown. However, it is worth noting that before 2022, both the SBU and the GUR were reluctant to disclose their involvement in special operations to eliminate enemies, as the international community did not perceive Russia’s war against Ukraine as a real war, considering it a “local conflict.”
Returning to the analysis of the most high-profile deaths of Donetsk separatist representatives, such as the “head of the DPR” Alexander Zakharchenko and militant leaders “Givi” and “Motorola,” one can see meticulous preparation for these acts of terrorism, where the executors did not rely on luck but planned everything down to the smallest detail. Given the amount of security all three had, it can be argued that people from their inner circles were involved. This means someone was either recruited or acted as a deeply undercover agent who did not arouse suspicion.
The same can be said about the preparation for the elimination of the occupation representatives in Luhansk, such as the “Prosecutor General” Gorenko and the “Minister of Internal Affairs” of the “LNR” group Kornet: all information that contributed to the success of the special operations came from their closest surroundings.
Some time after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukrainian special services and partisans conducted a series of special operations resulting in the retribution of traitors. They operated both in enemy-occupied territories and directly in Russia. Now, we can more frequently hear details about this from the SBU and intelligence agents. A vivid example is the elimination of Filipponeko, Kiva, and Tatarsky, as well as the attempts on Tsaryov and Prozorov.
In any case, everyone who decided to betray Ukraine and support the aggressor must remember: retribution for crimes against the independence of our state will reach everyone. Whether it will be a life sentence or death from a random explosion or gunshot, time will tell.
