- Colonel Dmitry Golenkov, a senior Russian officer, was beaten with a hammer.
A Russian air force commander, accused of a devastating attack on a Ukrainian shopping mall, was found beaten to death with a hammer.
Colonel Dmitry Golenkov, a senior officer in Russia’s 52nd heavy bomber regiment, has been eliminated with a “hammer of justice”, Ukrainian military intelligence said.
Golenkov, whose body was discovered outside the village of Suponevo in Russia’s Bryansk region, is accused of ordering the shopping center bombing that killed 2,022 people in June 2022.
The Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine was packed with civilians and kyiv said there were no military targets in the area.
Golenkov was also blamed for a bombing in Dnipro that killed 46 people in January 2023.
Colonel Dmitry Golenkov (pictured), a senior officer in Russia’s 52nd heavy bomber regiment, has been eliminated with a “hammer of justice”, Ukrainian military intelligence said.
This is the moment a Russian missile hits the Ukrainian shopping center of Kremenchuk
Footage from the time revealed that the bomb was likely a Russian AS-4 ‘Kitchen’ guided missile, a Soviet-era weapon that was originally designed to destroy American aircraft carriers.
Smoke rises from the ruins of the Amstor shopping center in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk after it was hit by long-range guided missiles in June 2022.
Ukraine said on Monday: “A Russian Tu-22M3 pilot has been liquidated on the territory of the Russian Federation.
“They smashed his head with a hammer.”
Golenkov held the position of chief of staff of the aviation squadron, which meant he had a major role in planning the attacks, Ukraine’s military intelligence said, as first reported by The Telegraph.
“He was involved in missile attacks against Ukrainian civilian targets,” it said.
The commander ordered bomb attacks against Ukraine from his base in Kaluga.
A video, taken at night, shows the body of the Russian pilot lying face down in a bush, his head soaked in blood.
At the time of the Kremenchuk attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Today’s Russian attack on the Kremenchuk shopping center is one of the most brazen terrorist acts in European history.”
Onlookers gather as the shopping center is engulfed in flames shortly after being hit by two Russian guided missiles.
Giant plumes of black smoke rose from the shopping center as it was engulfed in flames, as emergency crews rushed to the scene and onlookers watched in anguish.
Zelensky said the target posed “no threat to the Russian military” and had “no strategic value.”
He accused Russia of sabotaging “people’s attempts to live a normal life, which makes the occupiers so angry.”