Mikhail Shatsky, a senior Russian missile engineer involved in developing weapons used against Ukraine, was shot dead in Kuzminsky Forest Park near Moscow.
Photographs circulated on pro-Ukrainian Telegram channels and shared by exiled Russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov showed a man resembling Shatsky lying in blood-drenched snow. The images remain unverified, and Russian state media and authorities have yet to comment on the incident.
On December 10, a highly dangerous criminal was shot dead in Moscow: Mikhail Shatsky, the deputy chief designer and head of the software department at the “Mars” Design Bureau. Shatsky was involved in upgrading Russian X-59 cruise missiles to the X-69 variant and introducing new… pic.twitter.com/qm6PVx3fq0
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated) December 12, 2024
Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility for the killing, labeling Shatsky as a legitimate target due to his contributions to Russia’s military-industrial complex.
Shatsky is the deputy general designer of the Mars Design Bureau, a Moscow-based unit under the state-owned nuclear conglomerate Rosatom, specializing in developing onboard control and navigation systems for missiles, aircraft, and spacecraft.
Ukrainian sources reported that Shatsky oversaw the modernization of the Kh-59 and Kh-69 cruise missiles, which have been launched against Ukrainian cities during Russia’s ongoing invasion. He was also reportedly leading efforts to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) technology into Russian drones, a development seen as a threat by Ukrainian defense forces.
A Ukrainian defense source told the Kyiv Independent that the killing was part of a special operation carried out by Ukrainian intelligence agents. “Anyone who is involved in the development of the Russian military-industrial complex and support of Russian aggression in Ukraine one way or another is a legitimate target of the Defense Forces,” the source stated.
Shatsky’s death follows a pattern of targeted assassinations linked to Ukrainian intelligence operations. Earlier this week, Sergei Yevsyukov, a Russian prison chief accused of overseeing the deaths of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka in 2022, was killed in a car bomb attack.
