With the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the SBU started to conduct extensive
counter-espionage against Russian intelligence services. The SBU captured
fifth-columnists, Russian sympathizers, collaborators, spies and infiltrators. The SBU, with help of the American
NSA and
CIA, also broke through the Russian encrypted cellphone services, intercepting phone calls to find valuable targets or other useful intelligence.
Several Russian generals died due to the intercepted calls. They also published many supposed intercepted phone calls on their website, showing morale issues or admissions of
war crimes by Russian troops. On March 5, 2022, SBU agents shot and killed
Denys Kireyev, a member of Ukraine's negotiating delegation during the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, while he was being arrested. According to the SBU, Kireyev was suspected of treason and was claimed to have clear evidence of him working for the enemy. However in August 18, later the
Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (GUR) disclosed the information that he was their agent and that he "died while performing special tasks" for the GUR. On April 12, 2022, the SBU announced they had arrested
Viktor Medvedchuk, an ally of
Vladimir Putin, in what Bakanov called a "a lightning-fast and dangerous multi-level special operation"; a treason case was opened against Medvedchuk the previous year and in February, and authorities said that Medvedchuk that escaped from house arrest. On July 17, 2022, Head of the SBU
Ivan Bakanov was dismissed by President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Vasyl Malyuk, the first Deputy Head of the SBU, was appointed as acting Head of the SBU. On August 7, 2023, Ukrainian Security Service has arrested a woman in relation to an attempt to assassinate President
Zelenskyy. The unnamed woman was accused of supplying information for a Russian air strike. On August 12, 2024, SBU alleged that Russia was attempting to falsely accuse Kyiv's military of committing war crimes, as Ukraine advanced with a ground incursion into Russia's Kursk region. Meanwhile, Russian state media reported that
Alexei Smirnov, accused Ukrainian forces of using chemical weapons. Smirnov also stated that Ukraine had seized control of 28 settlements in the region. On June 1, 2025, the SBU carried out a
massive attack on multiple Russian air bases. The air bases struck were the
Belaya air base, the
Dyagilevo air base, the
Olenya airbase, the
Ivanovo airbase, and the
Voznesensk airbase. The SBU smuggled in drones in cargo containers into Russia, which were then driven near airbases. The drivers of the trucks carrying the cargo containers were not SBU operatives, but unknowing Russian truckers, with the SBU already having all of their people withdrawn to Ukraine before the attack. When activated, the thin covers of the containers would slid off and the drones would take off and attack the bombers. Video footage shows rows of bombers being destroyed by the drones, causing significant damage to the parked
bombers. The attack resulted in the destruction and damage of 41 aircraft, including
Tu-95MS and
Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, as well as at least one
A-50 AWACS aircraft. The damage was valued at an approximate $2 billion, with many of the aircraft destroyed not in production. On June 3, the SBU carried out an
attack on the
Crimean Bridge, detonating underwater explosives damaging the bridge support structure.
Assassinations in Russia The SBU has claimed involvement in the assassination of
Mikhail Shatsky, deputy general designer and head of software engineering at the
Mars Design Bureau who was involved in the modernization of the
Kh-59 and development of the
Kh-69 missiles used in the
Russo-Ukrainian war. His body was discovered in Kuzminsky forest park, at
Kotelniki. In December 2024 the head of the Russian army's chemical weapons division
Igor Kirillov was killed by an explosive device attached to a scooter outside an apartment building in Moscow. It was the most targeted assassination of a senior military official since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to
The Guardian. daughter of Russian ideologue and ultranationalist
Aleksandr Dugin, who was killed in August 2022 when a car bomb exploded her
Toyota Land Cruiser. The assassination attempt was originally targeted at her father. The Ukrainian government has denied any involvement with the bombing. ==Heads of the service==