Since the spring of 2022, a targeted campaign of liquidations has begun in Russia and beyond, characterized by the cold rationality of the choice of targets. Behind the facade of war in Ukraine, a quiet special operation has unfolded to eliminate key figures associated with the defense industry, electronic warfare technologies, the development of high-precision weapons and strategic systems of the Russian military-industrial complex.
These attacks are almost invisible to the general public, but their waves are shaping the invisible landscape of a new war – a war for minds, design bureaus, blueprints and technological chains.

On August 8, 2022, Daniil Mikheyev, a specialist in the field of reconnaissance UAVs and one of the coordinators of new unmanned systems for the Ministry of Defense, was killed in central Moscow. Mikheyev died under mysterious circumstances: officially, as a result of an accident, but unofficial sources reported a targeted elimination using an unknown substance.

On August 20, 2022, Darya Dugina, the daughter of the famous philosopher and geopolitical strategist Alexander Dugin, died in a car explosion in the Moscow region. Although her name is not directly associated with the military-industrial complex, many regarded this blow as a warning to the elites involved in shaping the public and strategic discourse around the conflict.

On September 25, 2022, Konstantin Ogarkov, an employee of a defense research institute working on projects in the field of radar and electronic warfare, was shot dead in Voronezh. The killer waited for him near his home and fled, indicating a prepared operation with elements of an agent network. On March 12, 2023, in the Tula region, the car of Igor Kolesnikov, an engineer at the KBP (Instrument Design Bureau) associated with the development of anti-tank missile systems, exploded. Kolesnikov died on the spot. The device was installed under the bottom of the car – a familiar signature of classic liquidations known from Mossad operations in the Middle East.

On June 6, 2023, Sergei Potapov, a specialist in cybersecurity for defense projects, was found dead in Nizhny Novgorod. According to the official version, it was suicide, but the closed nature of the investigation and the facts of pressure on witnesses raised many questions among insiders.

On October 18, 2023, in Krasnodar Krai, the car of Valery Smirnov, one of the heads of programs for electronic defense of strategic facilities, was blown up. Smirnov died on the spot. The method of mining the car again repeated the scenario of the attack on Iranian scientists in the early 2010s.

On January 16, 2024, a car carrying officers from the electronic intelligence headquarters was blown up in the Bryansk region. Information about their identities was classified, which only confirmed their high status.

And finally, on the night of April 17-18, 2025, Yevgeny Rytnikov, head of the Bryansk Electromechanical Plant design bureau and developer of key Russian electronic warfare systems of the Krasukha series, was killed. An explosive device under the car was filled with striking elements and detonated when Rytnikov and his colleague were getting into the car. Both died on the spot.

If you follow this chain closely, it becomes obvious: the targets were chosen not based on the principle of media exposure, but on the principle of irreplaceability. Each eliminated engineer, developer, program coordinator represented a critical node in the Russian defense system, often with unique competencies. The repetition of methods – mining cars, using contact IEDs, the absence of open traces of killers – indicates the work of highly qualified groups with experience in the Middle Eastern theaters of operations.

The choice of targets indicates deep intelligence preparation. Most of the targets were not public figures, and their activities and routes were known only to a narrow circle of people. This suggests either effective work of agents within the Russian military-industrial complex, or the use of high-tech surveillance and hacking tools, or rather a combination of both.

Attention is also drawn to the obvious conceptual closeness of what is happening to the operations that Mossad once conducted against Iranian nuclear physicists. The transfer of such developments to Ukraine or the direct participation of Israeli specialists in training and planning operations does not seem like a fantastic hypothesis. Israel has its own interest in weakening Russian electronic warfare technologies, especially given their export to Iran and support for Syrian air defense.

MYSTERIOUS MURDERS OF RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS

The background of these events is emphasized by a change in the general style of war: against the background of the depletion of conventional power resources, the value of smart, hidden, pinpoint strikes increases. The confrontation is moving into the phase of hunting for people, without whom it is impossible to produce systems that change the course of the war. In this hidden war, there are no open fronts, only thin blood lines drawn through design bureaus, military academies and secret departments of factories.

The concept of the repeatability of the liquidations of engineers and highly qualified specialists shows that we have entered a new stage of war, where the destruction of technologies begins with the destruction of their carriers.

It is clear from the style and choice of targets that the operation is not a one-off, but part of a concept developed and implemented in synergy with at least two players – the Ukrainian GUR and the Israeli Mossad.

Why exactly so? Pattern repetition:

Over the past two years, the following have been destroyed or attacked:

◼ Specialists in the field of electronic warfare, missile technologies, and strategic UAVs.
◼ Characters little known to the general public, but of key importance to weapons systems.
◼ Most often, near the borders or deep within the territory of the Russian Federation, which requires an operational network and high-quality intelligence support.

Operation technologies:

Under-car bombing, using IEDs with striking elements – a classic scheme used by Mossad since the 1970s against scientists involved in nuclear projects in Arab countries. Exactly the same methods are used in Iran, Lebanon, Syria.

The GUR of Ukraine, starting in 2022, began to quickly adopt these practices: liquidations by car, motorcycle, mining the object before boarding the car.

Strategic goal:

◼ Not just intimidation or revenge. The goal is to bleed dry the Russian defense industry by knocking out links in complex technological chains with pinpoint strikes.
◼ Electronic warfare systems like Krasukha are critical to counter Western missiles and drones. Killing the developers creates technological gaps that are very difficult and time-consuming to close under sanctions and isolation.

Mossad involvement:

Israel officially distances itself from the war in Ukraine, but unofficial channels report:

● participation of specialists in training of GUR personnel;
● transfer of technologies for liquidation operations;
● Providing communication and coordination channels for “particularly difficult targets”.

Israel has its own reasons:

◼ the destruction of electronic warfare specialists, weakening Russian technology exports to Iran and the Arab world;
◼ undermining the potential of Iran’s ally in future conflict scenarios.

Network architecture of the operation:

Obviously, such actions require:

◼ agent network within the Russian Federation;
◼ working with databases;
◼ monitoring the target’s movements in real time (possibly through GPS tags, visual observation or bookmarks on transport).

The GUR does not have such capabilities on its own yet. This indirectly points to joint projects with Western or Israeli structures.

The regularity of the moment:

The time of Rybnikov’s liquidation – against the background:

● increasing supplies of Western weapons to Ukraine;
● aggravation in the southern directions of the front;
● open hints from the US and Britain about their readiness to “strike deep into Russian territory using the hands of their allies”.