Colonel Alexey Kolomeytsev. Photo: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
A Russian colonel responsible for the training of drone operators was assassinated in a covert operation in Russia’s Moscow region orchestrated by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence on Friday, the ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence announced on Saturday.
51-year-old Colonel Alexey Kolomeytsev, who reportedly headed the Russian army’s 924th State Centre for Unmanned Aviation, was killed in the city of Kolomna just over 100km southeast of Moscow, the directorate said.
While it did not disclose details of the colonel’s killing, the directorate published a photo purportedly showing Kolomeytsev’s body and said that Ukraine would ensure “just retribution for every war crime”.
Kolomeytsev, it said, was “directly involved in Russia's full-scale invasion and war crimes against Ukraine” for his role in training specialists to operate Shahed attack drones.
Moscow has not yet commented on the reported attack.
Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine cited an unnamed source from the country’s military intelligence services who said that the assassination had been carried out by a “local resistance movement against the Kremlin” under the direction of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.
The source said that the resistance movement was “expanding its activities throughout Russia and beyond” and that it would target “every Russian war criminal” wherever they were.
“We will destroy everyone who has the blood of Ukrainians on their hands until the Russian regime stops the war and answers for all its crimes”, Interfax-Ukraine cited the source as saying.
If confirmed, Kolomeytsev’s killing would not be the first such operation undertaken by Ukrainian intelligence services on Russian territory.
In December, Ukraine’s Security Service claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of former Ukrainian parliamentary deputy Illia Kyva in a Moscow suburb, while in July military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov revealed that Ukraine had made repeated attempts on the life of Vladimir Putin.
