Claiming responsibility for the killing, Ukraine’s military intelligence said Colonel Dmitry Golenkov, a senior officer in Russia’s 52nd heavy bomber regiment, had been eliminated with a “hammer of justice.”
Golenkov, whose body was discovered near the village of Suponevo in Russia’s Bryansk region, was reportedly behind one of the war’s most severe strikes on a shopping center, which left over 14 people dead in 2022.
Although the precise details of how Ukrainian forces carried out the assassination remain unclear, Ukrainian special forces and partisan groups have increasingly expanded their activities inside Russian-held territory and within Russia itself since the war began.
A video filmed at night shows Golenkov’s body lying face down in shrubland, with his head covered in blood. He was found carrying a white plastic bag.
On Monday, Ukraine said: “A Russian Tu-22M3 pilot has been liquidated on the territory of the Russian Federation.
“His head was smashed with a hammer.”
Golenkov’s crimes
Golenkov had been stationed in the Kaluga region, from where he directed airstrikes over Ukraine, including the bombing of a shopping center in Kremenchuk in June 2022 that killed 22 civilians.
The attack occurred on a Saturday afternoon, while the shopping center was crowded. Ukrainian officials said that there were no military targets in the vicinity.
Golenkov was also implicated in a January 2023 airstrike on Dnipro that resulted in the deaths of 46 people.
Ukrainian military intelligence confirmed that Golenkov held the position of chief of staff of an aviation squadron, giving him a critical role in planning missile strikes on civilian infrastructure. “He was involved in missile strikes on Ukrainian civilian targets,” the statement said.
Daring operations
Russia’s Ministry of Defense has yet to comment on the killing.
Ukrainian military intelligence is known for conducting bold and high-risk operations within enemy territory, including inside Russia.
In 2023, Ukrainian forces used data from a fitness app to track and assassinate a Russian submarine captain in Krasnodar who had launched missile strikes on Ukraine.
Ukrainian agents have also been behind the killings of numerous pro-Russian collaborators in occupied Ukrainian territories.
In another operation that same year, Ukraine planted a bomb inside a bust to assassinate a Russian military blogger at a street food café in St. Petersburg.
