Ukrainian intel behind murders of war blogger Tatarsky, ex-submarine commander

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry (GUR) have carried out dozens of assassinations against Russian officials in Russia’s new regions, The Washington Post (WaPo) reported, citing Ukrainian and Western security officials.
The assassinations include the murders of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, and Stanislav Rzhitsky, a former commander of the Krasnodar submarine jogging in a park in south Russia’s city of Krasnodar.

Even in lethal missions, the newspaper said, the SBU and GUR have sought to avoid harm to innocent bystanders. Security officials also told the WaPo that no major operation by either of the two agencies proceeds without clearance — tacit or otherwise — from Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

Tatarsky was killed as a blast ripped through a caf· in central St. Petersburg on April 2. The body of Rzhitsky was found with gunshot wounds in Krasnodar on July 10.