- Category
- War in Ukraine
Ukraine Tracks Down and Eliminates Assassin of Ukrainian Intelligence General Maksym Shapoval
Prefer U24 Media on Google
- Authors
![Photo of Roman Kohanets]( "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
-111f0e5095e02c02446ffed57bfb0ab1.jpeg "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
Ukrainian special services terminated Oleg Shutov, identified by Ukrainian authorities as the assassin of intelligence general Maksym Shapoval, in a covert operation in occupied Donetsk on July 27.
Sources within Ukraine's security services disclosed the operation to LB.ua on September 7.
They said the announcement had been delayed until the agent-combat group returned to Ukrainian-held territory and provided photographs documenting the surveillance and killing. The operation resulted in Oleg Shutov being killed in Donetsk after his vehicle was targeted near a local sports complex.
We bring you stories from the ground. Your support keeps our team in the field.
According to the outlet's sources, operatives planted an improvised explosive device in the car that Shutov drove to the Dynamo sports complex in Donetsk's Leninsky district on the evening of July 27. The vehicle exploded as he arrived, killing him. The Oleg Shutov car explosion in Donetsk was initially described differently by occupation-linked media.
Local occupation channels claimed the blast was a nighttime drone attack that had injured the head of the regional wrestling federation. In reality, LB.ua's sources said, Shutov died in the vehicle explosion. The report said Ukrainian special services killed Oleg Shutov as part of a covert operation that was kept secret until those involved had safely returned.
Shutov's alleged role in Shapoval's killing was first made public on April 19, 2019, by then-SBU chief Vasyl Hrytsak. Ukrainian authorities subsequently made the connection between the Oleg Shutov-Maksym Shapoval assassinations a central part of their investigation.
"It was this person who, on June 26, 2017, planted an explosive device under the car of Ukrainian intelligence general Maksym Shapoval," Hrytsak said at the time.
Hrytsak reported that Shutov had rented an apartment in the building where Shapoval lived, along with a parking space beside the general's. Within an hour of the killing, he allegedly cleared out the apartment and fled Kyiv for Russia before traveling to occupied Donbas. Investigators said these movements were key evidence in the Oleg Shutov-Shapoval car bombing case.
The Maksym Shapoval assassination in 2017 became one of Ukraine's most prominent investigations into attacks on senior military and security officials. Shapoval, commander of the 10th separate special-purpose detachment of Ukraine's military intelligence, died on June 27, 2017, when his car exploded in Kyiv's Solomyansky district.
The investigation sought to establish who killed Maksym Shapoval, who organized the operation, and how the perpetrators monitored his movements before the attack. Ukrainian security officials later said the killing was part of a broader Russian sabotage campaign targeting Ukrainian officers.
-b2a4bcf9948f1b8c826df25274322526.jpg)
The Maksym Shapoval car bombing in Kyiv involved an explosive device planted beneath his vehicle. Ukrainian investigators alleged that Shutov had positioned himself close to Shapoval's residence before the attack and left the capital shortly after the explosion.
As a senior Ukrainian military intelligence officer, Maksym Shapoval commanded a special-purpose unit and held the rank of major general posthumously. His death triggered an extensive counterintelligence inquiry into the individuals and networks suspected of organizing attacks against Ukrainian security personnel.
The SBU investigation into the Maksym Shapoval assassination eventually connected Shutov to Russian-controlled security structures in temporarily occupied Donetsk. Shutov headed the judo and sambo association of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic and worked as an operative in the special operations center of its Ministry of State Security, a body operating under Russian control.
Ukrainian services have carried out a series of targeted operations against Russian-aligned figures in occupied territory this year. In August, an explosive device killed Robert Shageev, a former Ukrainian naval officer who defected to Russia after 2014, in occupied Sevastopol, where Russian authorities detained a woman accused of planting the charge.
Discuss this article:
-9a7b3a98ed5c506e0b77a6663f5727c5.png)
-431210abffe9188d1e2c5aca718e1303.jpg "A screen grab from a video shows the installation of the Oreshnik missile system on December 30, 2025, in Belarus.")