Ukraine
Senior official of the Ukrainian secret service SBU found dead in his apartment
An employee of the Ukrainian secret service SBU storms down a stairwell
© Felipe Dana/AP/DPA
A department head of the Ukrainian secret service SBU has been found dead. The police are investigating the background to his death.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, senior Ukrainian intelligence officer Oleksandr Nakonechnyj has been found dead in his apartment. The wife found her husband on Saturday with gunshot wounds in the shared apartment in the central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytsky after hearing shots, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Sunday in the online service Telegram. The police began an investigation but did not release any further details.
Department head of the secret service SBU shot dead
Local politician Andriy Lavrus wrote on Telegram that Nakonetschnyj had committed suicide. This could not be confirmed at first. Nakonetschnyj had headed the local branch of the SBU in the Kirovograd region since 2021.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi removed SBU chief Ivan Bakanov from his position in July. Zelenskyj justified the step with his allegedly insufficient efforts to remove spies and Russian collaborators from the SBU. In this context, Zelenskyj had also announced that SBU employees would be subjected to an examination.