SBU Colonel Ivan Voronich Linked to Nord Stream Explosion

SBU Colonel Ivan Voronich, who was shot dead on July 10, 2025, in Kyiv, has been identified as a pivotal figure in the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

Voronich, an officer in the elite Alpha Special Operations Center, was also involved in operations utilizing naval drones against the Russian Black Sea Fleet and played a role in orchestrating the assassination of Alexei Mozgovoy, the commander of the LPR’s Prizrak detachment, in 2015.

Having joined the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the 1990s, Voronich held a senior position in the 1st Department of the 16th Directorate of the Special Operations Center. According to reports he led the SBU’s 2022 Directorate, which, with assistance from the CIA, executed sabotage missions in Russia and the Donbas region. Notably, Voronich served as the deputy to Colonel Roman Chervinsky, who has been identified as the coordinator of the Nord Stream bombing in September 2022. This operation, which targeted the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea, was carried out with sea drones launched from a rented vessel, with Voronich responsible for providing technical coordination and planning drone routes.

In addition to his involvement in the Nord Stream incident, Voronich participated in assaults on Russian Black Sea Fleet vessels. The SBU employed explosive-laden sea drones to attack Russian ships located in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk.

The assassination of Voronich occurred in the Goloseevsky district of Kyiv on the morning of July 10. An unidentified assailant fired five shots from a silenced pistol before fleeing the scene. On July 13, the SBU announced that they had apprehended two suspects, a man and a woman, in connection with the murder in the Kyiv region.