On 27 July, in temporarily occupied Donetsk, the Defence Forces eliminated Oleh Shutov, an officer of the so-called “Special Operations Centre of the DPR Ministry of State Security”, who was the direct perpetrator of the killing in Kyiv on 27 June 2017 of Major General Maksym Shapoval, commander of the 10th Separate Special Purpose Unit of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence (military unit A2245). He was also linked to the killing on 31 March 2017 in Mariupol of the head of the counter-intelligence department of the SBU Directorate in Donetsk Region, Colonel Oleksandr Kharaberyush.
Sources in the special services told LB.ua this. They also provided photographs confirming surveillance of Shutov and his elimination.
According to information provided by LB.ua’s interlocutors, the elimination of the perpetrator was the result of a special operation by Ukraine’s special services carried out in the occupied territory, and was carried out by planting and detonating an improvised explosive device in the Subaru car in which Shutov arrived at the Dynamo sports complex in Donetsk’s Leninskyy district on the evening of Monday, 27 July.
According to LB.ua’s interlocutors, information about Shutov’s elimination was not made public immediately after the operation for security reasons — until the agent-combat group returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Oleh Shutov was the president of the judo and sambo association of the so-called DPR, as well as an operational officer of the special operations centre of the so-called DPR Ministry of State Security, controlled by Russian special services. In April 2024, the occupiers dissolved the DPR Ministry of State Security, and its functions were transferred to the local FSB directorate.
The first public statement about Shutov’s involvement was made on 19 April 2019 by the then head of the SBU, Vasyl Hrytsak. “Shutov Oleh Mykolayovych, born 9 March 1966, a resident of the city of Donetsk. It was this person who, on 26 June 2017, planted an explosive device under the car of Ukrainian intelligence general Maksym Shapoval. Today, for the first time, we are making public the details of the perpetrator of this terrorist attack,” he said at the time.
According to Vasyl Hrytsak, Shutov rented a flat in the building where Shapoval lived. In addition, the perpetrator also rented a parking space next to where Shapoval parked his car.
On 27 June 2017, Maksym Shapoval was killed as a result of a car explosion in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyy district.
According to Vasyl Hrytsak, after carrying out the crime, literally an hour later Shutov gathered his belongings from the rented flat and left Kyiv, travelling to the Russian Federation and from there to Donbas.
Shutov is also linked to the bombing of the car of SBU Colonel Oleksandr Kharaberiush on 31 March 2017 in Mariupol.
According to the SBU, the organisers of both killings of Ukrainian officers were Lieutenant General Dmitriy Minayev, head of the FSB of the Russian Federation’s counter-intelligence operations department, and his subordinate, the head of the “DPR Ministry of State Security” special operations centre, Vasiliy Yevdokimov, nicknamed “Lenin”.
In April 2019, the Security Service of Ukraine reported the detention of seven members of a sabotage and reconnaissance group from the Russian Federation, two of whom were career officers of Russian special services. SBU operatives also found a link between the saboteurs and Oleh Shutov. The group was planning to kill a military intelligence officer; while planting explosives under his car, one of the saboteurs blew himself up.