Ukrainian spy colonel gunned down in Kyiv, assailant flees
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Ukrainian spy colonel gunned down in Kyiv
The slain agent was a colonel in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), an official said. CCTV footage showed a man in jeans leaving a residential building and walking to a car park where he was approached by another man, who appeared to fire at him repeatedly. The SBU, a sprawling domestic spy agency which has a staff of thousands, said it had opened a criminal investigation into the murder of one of its employees in Kyiv’s southern Holosiivskyi district.
A CCTV footage shows a Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officer walking down the stairs moments before he was shot in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 10.
KYIV – A senior Ukrainian security officer was gunned down in a residential parking lot in Kyiv on July 10 before his assailant fled on foot in broad daylight, according to authorities and video footage verified by Reuters.
Kyiv’s police force said it was working to identify the shooter and that “measures are being taken to detain him”. The slain agent was a colonel in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), an official told Reuters.
The SBU, a sprawling domestic spy agency which has a staff of thousands, said it had opened a criminal investigation into the murder of one of its employees in Kyiv’s southern Holosiivskyi district. They did not identify him.
The agency’s main remit covers security and counterintelligence, but since Russia’s 2022 invasion it has also played a prominent role in special operations against Moscow, including assassinations and sabotage attacks far behind the front line.
Neither the SBU nor the police gave possible motives for the killing.
“The Security Service and the National Police are taking a comprehensive set of measures to clarify all the circumstances of the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice,” the SBU said in a statement.
CCTV footage circulated on Ukrainian social media showed a man in jeans leaving a residential building and walking to a car park where he was approached by another man, who appeared to fire at him repeatedly before running away.
Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video of the purported killing as Kyiv using the guard box, buildings and parking lot layout, which match file and satellite imagery of the area.
The date when the video was recorded was verified using the timestamp on the footage and Reuters reporting of the incident.
The Ukraiinska Pravda media outlet cited a source saying the assailant fired five rounds from a pistol and identified his victim as Mr Ivan Voronych, an SBU colonel. REUTERS
Ukrainian spy colonel gunned down in Kyiv, assailant flees
A senior Ukrainian security officer was gunned down in a residential parking lot in Kyiv on Thursday before his assailant fled on foot in broad daylight. The slain agent was a colonel in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), an official told Reuters. The SBU, a sprawling domestic spy agency which has thousands of staff, said it had opened a criminal investigation into the murder of one of its employees. Neither the SBU nor the police mentioned possible motives for the killing inKyiv. Some pro-Kremlin military bloggers cheered the death of the colonel. “The enemy must feel afraid on its own territory,” one blogger said of Russia’s security services, which have not publicly commented.
Item 1 of 2 A CCTV footage shows the purported killer running moments after the shooting of a Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officer in Kyiv, Ukraine July 10, 2025 in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. Ukrainska Pravda/via REUTERS
Summary Senior security agent shot dead in residential carpark
Gunman filmed running away on foot in broad daylight
Ukraine security agency has major role in special operations
July 10 (Reuters) – A senior Ukrainian security officer was gunned down in a residential parking lot in Kyiv on Thursday before his assailant fled on foot in broad daylight, according to authorities and video footage verified by Reuters.
Kyiv’s police force said it was working to identify the shooter and that “measures are being taken to detain him”. The slain agent was a colonel in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), an official told Reuters.
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The SBU, a sprawling domestic spy agency which has thousands of staff, said it had opened a criminal investigation into the murder of one of its employees in Kyiv’s southern Holosiivskyi district. They did not identify him.
The agency’s remit covers security and counterintelligence, but since Russia’s 2022 invasion it has also played a prominent role in special operations against Moscow, including assassinations and sabotage attacks.
Those include an extraordinary drone operation codenamed Spider’s Web that targeted Russian strategic aircraft at bases hundreds of miles from Ukraine, and the assassination of a top Russian general in Moscow using a bomb hidden in a scooter.
Neither the SBU nor the police mentioned possible motives for the killing in Kyiv.
“The Security Service and the National Police are taking a comprehensive set of measures to clarify all the circumstances of the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice,” the SBU said in a statement.
Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda cited a source saying the assailant fired five rounds from a pistol. It identified his victim as Ivan Voronych, an SBU colonel.
Some pro-Kremlin military bloggers cheered the death of the colonel. Alexander Kots, a Russian war correspondent, said he hoped the Russian security services were behind his death. “The enemy must feel afraid on its own territory.”
Russian officials have not publicly commented.
CCTV footage circulated on Ukrainian social media showed a man in jeans leaving a residential building and walking to a car park where he was approached by another man, who fired at him repeatedly before running away.
Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video of the purported killing as a neighbourhood in Kyiv, using the guard box, buildings and parking lot layout, which match file and satellite imagery of the area.
The date when the video was recorded was verified using the timestamp on the footage and Reuters reporting of the incident.
Reporting by Tom Balmforth; additional reporting by Aaron McNicholas; editing by Alex Richardson and Andrew Heavens
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Vatican embassy in Kyiv damaged by Russian airstrikes
Vatican’s embassy in Ukraine damaged by Russian drone attack. The attack came as a conference on the Ukraine-Russia conflict opened in Rome. The conference is expected to last until the end of the month, with the aim of setting up a peacekeeping force in the region. The U.S. is also expected to take part in the conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C.
VATICAN CITY, July 10 (Reuters) – The Vatican’s embassy in Kyiv was slightly damaged during Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday morning, the embassy said in a statement.
“During yet another attack on the city of Kyiv … this Apostolic Nunciature sustained some damage to the main building, as well as to service areas,” the statement said, using the official Catholic term for the Vatican’s diplomatic mission.
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Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, the Vatican’s ambassador to Ukraine, separately told official outlet Vatican News that he had witnessed drones circling around the embassy grounds and heard several explosions overnight.
Kulbokas said the attack damaged the embassy’s roof and its parking garage.
“We collected around ten fairly large fragments, and I believe it was a drone rather than a missile,” said the archbishop. “Thankfully, none of us was harmed. But it’s striking, of course, to see explosions happening right nearby.”
Russia’s airstrikes in Ukraine came as an international conference on the three-year war was opening in Rome, at which Kyiv won billions of dollars in aid pledges
Pope Leo met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday, and told him the Vatican would be willing to host Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
The Vatican has formal diplomatic relations with around 180 countries and maintains embassies in many world capitals. Its ambassadors are known for their devotion to remaining in post, even during war times, and rarely evacuate their embassies.
Reporting by Joshua McElwee, editing by Alvise Armellini, Alexandra Hudson
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France, Britain unveil nuclear weapons cooperation to counter threat to Europe
France and Britain agree to reinforce cooperation over their respective nuclear arsenals. Announcement came after French President Emmanuel Macron concluded a three-day state visit to Britain. U.S. President Donald Trump’s questioning of burden-sharing in NATO and his overtures to Russia have led to existential questions in Europe about the trans-Atlantic relationship. France spends about 5.6 billion euros ($6.04 billion) annually on maintaining its stockpile of 290 submarine- and air-launched nuclear weapons. Britain describes its nuclear programme as “operationally independent”, but sources missile technology from the U.K. and depends on the U-S. for acquisition and maintenance support. The move suggests further protection for the continent at a time when the United States’ commitment to Europe is under scrutiny.
Summary Starmer calls agreement historic
Macron says committee will oversee cooperation
Trump has caused uncertainty over US commitments
NORTHWOOD, July 10 (Reuters) – France and Britain on Thursday agreed to reinforce cooperation over their respective nuclear arsenals as the two European powerhouses seek to respond to growing threats to the continent and uncertainty over their U.S. ally.
The announcement came after French President Emmanuel Macron concluded a three-day state visit to Britain, where the two allies sought to turn the page of years’ of turbulence following Britain’s decision to withdraw from the European Union.
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“This morning, we signed the Northward declaration, confirming for the first time that we are coordinating our independent nuclear deterrence,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a news conference alongside Macron.
“From today, our adversaries will know that any extreme threat to this continent would prompt a response from our two nations. There is no greater demonstration of the importance of this relationship.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s questioning of burden-sharing in NATO and his overtures to Russia have led to existential questions in Europe about the trans-Atlantic relationship and Washington’s commitment to helping defend its European allies.
Europe’s primary nuclear deterrence comes from the United States and is a decades-old symbol of trans-Atlantic solidarity.
Macron said the two countries had created an oversight committee to coordinate their cooperation, a task he said was vital.
“The decision is that we don’t exclude the coordination of our respective deterrents. It’s a message that our partners and adversaries must hear,” Macron said.
The closer cooperation had nothing to do with their efforts to create a coalition of the willing to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, he added.
While both sides will keep their own decision-making processes and strategic ambiguity, the move does suggest further protection for the continent at a time when the United States’ commitment to Europe is under scrutiny.
Macron has previously said he will launch a strategic dialogue on extending the protection offered by France’s nuclear arsenal to its European partners.
The U.S. has nuclear arms in Europe and tens of thousands of troops deployed in bases across the continent with military capabilities that Europe cannot match.
France spends about 5.6 billion euros ($6.04 billion) annually on maintaining its stockpile of 290 submarine- and air-launched nuclear weapons, the world’s fourth largest.
Britain describes its nuclear programme as “operationally independent”, but sources missile technology from the U.S. and depends on the U.S. for acquisition and maintenance support.
“On the nuclear agreement that we’ve reached today … it is truly historic,” Starmer said.
Additional reporting by Sam Tabahriti; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Aidan Lewis
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Greek lawmakers to vote on North Africa asylum ban as rights groups cry foul
Greek lawmakers set to vote on legislation that would temporarily halt the processing of asylum applications of people coming from North Africa for at least three months. The vote comes amid a surge in migrant arrivals to the island of Crete and after talks with divided Libya’s Benghazi-based eastern government to help stem the flow were cancelled acrimoniously this week. Human rights groups said the proposed three-month asylum ban would violate international and European law. Greece has taken an increasingly tough stand on migration since Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right New Democracy came to power in 2019. There were among hundreds rescued by the Greek coastguard in the Libyan Sea off Crete in recent days.”We are experiencing what I would call the worst crisis of the past two years,” said Vasilis Katsikandarakis, head of the coastguard.
Item 1 of 5 Newly-arrived migrants are sheltered in a municipal hall, in the town of Agyia, on the island of Crete, Greece, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Nicolas Economou
Summary Rights groups claim asylum ban violates international law
Surge in migrant arrivals to Crete prompts legislative action
Greek government defends ban as emergency response
EU, Greece, Italy, Malta ministers plan new visit to Libya – source
AGYIA, Crete, July 10 (Reuters) – Greek lawmakers were set to vote on legislation on Thursday that would temporarily halt the processing of asylum applications of people coming from North Africa for at least three months, a move rights groups have called illegal.
The vote comes amid a surge in migrant arrivals to the island of Crete and after talks with divided Libya’s Benghazi-based eastern government to help stem the flow were cancelled acrimoniously this week.
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If passed, the law would represent a further hardening of Greece’s stance towards migrants on Europe’s southern fringe.
“From now on, the road for illegal migrants is go to jail or go back to their country,” Migration Minister Thanos Plevris told parliament before the vote. “This is not a just normal migrant flow, it is an invasion into Europe.”
A vote on the law, which would also allow authorities to quickly deport migrants without any prior identification process, was expected on Thursday or Friday. It is expected to pass, given the ruling party’s parliamentary majority.
Greece, one of the main gateways into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, has taken an increasingly tough stand on migration since Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right New Democracy came to power in 2019, building a fence at its northern land borders and boosting sea patrols in the east.
Still, sea arrivals of migrants travelling from northeastern Libya to its southern islands of Crete and Gavdos, the closest European territory to North Africa, have surged this year.
SEA RESCUES
Dozens, including children, sat on mattresses in a temporary reception centre in Agyia, near the city of Chania, on Thursday. There were among hundreds rescued by the Greek coastguard in the Libyan Sea off Crete in recent days.
“We are experiencing what I would call the worst crisis of the past two years,” said Vasilis Katsikandarakis, head of the coastguard staff in western Crete. “All the burden has fallen onto the coastguard, who don’t have the necessary equipment and personnel to deal with such flows.”
Human rights groups said the proposed three-month asylum ban would violate international and European law, and called on the Greek government to recall it.
“Seeking refuge is a human right; preventing people from doing so is both illegal and inhumane,” the International Rescue Committee said in a statement.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis denied that the law change was illegal and said it was meant to deter migrants.
Mitsotakis met European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela on Thursday to discuss the issue on the sidelines of a conference in Rome.
They agreed to work on resending an EU delegation to Libya to revive a visit which was aborted when the parallel government of Osama Hamad, which controls the east and large areas of the south, denied them entry
Reporting by Nicolas Economou and Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Alex Richardson
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