The Russia-Ukraine war is fought on many fronts. Apart from the hundreds of miles-long active frontline in Eastern Ukraine, the battle is also fought in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, Africa, and on the streets of Moscow, where many high-profile Russian generals have been assassinated, suspected to be carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services operating behind enemy lines.
In another such attack, a Russian general, Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, was killed on December 22 after an explosive device detonated beneath his car.
Lt Gen Sarvarov was the head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff.
Moscow described the attack as a likely assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services.
“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of inquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” the spokesperson said.
Notably, Lt. Gen. Sarvarov was not only linked to the Ukraine war effort, overseeing combat training and readiness for Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine, but also has extensive experience in Russia’s post-Soviet wars.
He fought in both Chechen Wars and played an organizing role in Russia’s military intervention in Syria in 2015.
Ukrainian intelligence services have targeted dozens of high-ranking Russian military officers in targeted assassinations since the war began in February 2022.
The tactic of targeted assassinations sounds strikingly similar to the strategy adopted by Israel against Iran. Israel has eliminated dozens of key Iranian nuclear scientists in targeted assassinations.
While several key Iranian nuclear scientists were targeted and eliminated during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June this year, Tel Aviv has targeted Iranian nuclear scientists earlier as well.
However, although the Israeli and Ukrainian intelligence services are adopting similar tactics of targeted killings, they differ substantially in their objectives.
Targeted Assassinations Of Russian Military Officials
Notably, the killing of Lt. Gen. Sarvarov is not the first targeted assassination of a high-ranking Russian military official since the war began in 2022.
In December last year, Ukraine claimed responsibility for the assassination of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces.
He was killed by a bomb concealed in an electric scooter outside his apartment building, a day after Ukraine levelled criminal charges against him.
Other senior Russian officers killed in Moscow included Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational department of the General Staff, who was the victim of a car bomb attack near Moscow in April.
The founder of a pro-Russian militia group, Armen Sarkisyan, described by Ukraine as a “criminal mastermind,” was killed in a bombing in Moscow in February this year.
An influential pro-war blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed in a cafe bombing in St Petersburg in April 2023.
Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, at least 12 Russian generals and prominent figures have been killed in bomb blasts and suspected Ukrainian attacks behind enemy lines.
According to ACLED, an independent conflict monitor providing real-time data, there have been over 150 assassination attempts, including foiled ones, in both Ukraine and Russia since the war began in 2022.
Ukrainian intelligence services have also released blacklists of alleged Russian war criminals to be targeted.
In September, Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warned that further attacks on senior Russian military figures could follow, warning that they “have to know where their bomb shelters are.”
Some Ukrainian military figures have suggested that these targeted assassinations of Russian military officials involved in the Ukraine War could continue even after the war ends.
Col. Roman Kostenko, a Ukrainian MP and former special forces commander, said in April last year that the Mossad campaigns to track down and assassinate senior Nazis would provide a model for Ukrainian attacks over the next 10-30 years.
Any peace agreement would be “only the beginning” for Ukrainian intelligence, he said. “These people will be punished wherever they are. They will be afraid not only to leave the territory of the Russian Federation, but to leave the house.”
Ukraine: SBU Alpha Group Special Forces Colonel Roman Kostenko, member of the Cyborgs who valiantly defended the Donetsk airport in 2014 reaffirmed that Ukraine will hunt down all Russian war criminals wherever they are, for decades to come after the war. pic.twitter.com/YBU4FJBDSq
— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) April 29, 2025
Worryingly for Russia, Ukrainian intelligence officials can efficiently operate inside Russia. Many Ukrainians speak fluent Russian. Many have relatives and friends inside Russia and have traveled extensively in the country.
They are also deeply familiar with Russian mannerisms and can easily operate undercover inside Russia.
The Ukrainian assassination campaign inside Russia serves many purposes.
The strategy behind these attacks appears to be psychological warfare and the disruption of military operations, aimed at bringing the costs of the war home to Moscow’s elite and disrupting Russia’s war effort. This strategy achieves four distinct goals.
Psychological Impact: The attacks, often occurring deep within Russia (including Moscow), send a powerful message that no one involved in orchestrating the war is safe, regardless of their rank or location. This aims to sow fear and a sense of vulnerability among Russia’s military and political elite.
Disruption and Deterrence: By eliminating senior officers, Ukraine aims to disrupt the Russian military’s command-and-control structure and operational planning.
Symbolic Retribution: Some targets have appeared on Ukrainian “blacklists” of alleged war criminals, suggesting the killings are also a form of perceived justice or “vengeance” for war crimes ordered against Ukrainian civilians.
Boosting Morale: High-profile operations behind enemy lines can serve to boost morale among Ukrainian forces and the general population.
It remains to be seen if the assassination of a high-profile military official in Moscow will affect the ongoing peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
However, the Ukrainian strategy of targeted assassinations has already drawn attention to its similarity to Mossad’s strategy of targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists.
Targeted Assassinations Of Iranian Nuclear Scientists
During the June 2025 Iran-Israel war, Israel targeted and killed numerous senior Iranian nuclear scientists, with reports indicating at least 11 key figures were assassinated as part of an operation to cripple Iran’s nuclear program, including notable names like Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani and Mohammad Mahdi Tehranchi.
“The elimination of these nuclear scientists deprived Iran’s nuclear weapons program of its most capable and experienced personnel. This act weakened Iran’s base for building nuclear weapons, eliminating needed expertise and hard-to-get management experience,” the Institute for Science and International Security said in its analysis of the significance of targeting Iranian Nuclear scientists.
The covert Israeli campaign to eliminate Iranian Nuclear scientists was called “Operation Narnia.”
According to a recent joint investigation by The Washington Post, PBS, Belling Cat, and Evident Media, Israel has prepared a list of 100 prominent Iranian nuclear scientists. This list was further shortened to just 12 names.
According to the investigation, rather than limiting their targets to nuclear infrastructure, Israel prioritized eliminating the “brains” of Iran’s nuclear program, referring to a generation of engineers and scientists believed to have played a key role in Iran’s nuclear program.
In retrospect, one can see the merit in Israel’s plan.
While Tehran can rebuild its Fordo nuclear facility, which was targeted by U.S. B-2 bombers in June, within months, it will take Iran many years to replace the human talent it lost to targeted Israeli assassinations during the war.
In this sense, at least, Israeli target killings of Iranian nuclear scientists inflicted a much more long-lasting damage to Tehran.
Still, the psychological impact of Ukraine’s target killings of Russian military officials in Moscow can not be underestimated.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
