Vasyl Vasyliovych Malyuk (Ukrainian: Василь Васильович Малюк; born 28 February 1983) is a Ukrainian military officer, Lieutenant General, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) since 7 February 2023[1] (before that – Acting Head of the SSU from 18 July 2022[2]). He is a member of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (since 4 August 2022)[3] and a member of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s Staff since 16 August 2022 (as First Deputy Head of the SSU,[4] since 14 February 2023 - as the SSU Head[5])
Biography
Vasyl Malyuk was born on 28 February 1983, in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region (northern Ukraine).[6] In 2001, he began military service in the state security agencies. In 2005, graduated from the National Academy of the Security Service of Ukraine [uk] with a degree in law. He later received a PhD in law. "Since childhood, I dreamed of becoming a special service officer. From the 9th grade, I prepared myself for this both physically and mentally. I was actively involved in sports and law", — Malyuk said in an interview.[7]
From January 2020 to 13 March 2020, Vasyl Malyuk was the First Deputy Head of the SSU Main Directorate for Combatting Corruption and Organized Crime. From 13 March 2020 to 26 July 2021, V.Malyuk was the First Deputy Head of the SSU - Head of the Main Directorate for Combatting Corruption and Organized Crime.[8][9]
From 16 February to 27 February 2022, Vasyl Malyuk was Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine,[10][11] and from 28 February to 3 March 2022 - Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine.[12][13] On 3 March 2022, by a decree of the President of Ukraine, he was appointed as the First Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine.[14] From 18 July 2022 to 7 February 2023, Malyuk was the Acting Head of the Security Service of Ukraine.[15]
On 25 March 2022, Malyuk was promoted to the rank of brigadier general,[16] and on 1 December 2022 - to the rank of major general.[17]
On 7 February 2023, at the proposal of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Verkhovna Rada voted to appoint Vasyl Malyuk as the Head of the SSU. At the parliament’s meeting on his appointment, Malyuk said:
In the Ukrainian epic, we honour such a hero as Cossack Mamay. In my office, I have a picture of him with a bandura sitting on the skulls of Ukraine’s enemies. So, death is the only prospect we can offer the occupiers![18]
The Russo-Ukrainian war
Vasyl Malyuk met the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs. On the very first day, he joined the defence of the country as a military officer - together with his colleagues and comrades-in-arms, he went to fight against the adversary on Hostomel direction to prevent the Russians from landing there. They did everything to prevent the enemy troops from entering Kyiv: mined the approaches, organized fire positions, brought instructors, and trained young National Guardsmen. They also set up Stugna systems and filled vehicles with explosives. A few days later, Vasyl Malyuk returned to Kyiv to organize the defence in the capital itself.
The capital was divided into 10 sectors. Operational and investigative groups of the SSU, the National Police, joined by NABU detectives and special purpose units, operated in each sector. We responded immediately to any threat that arose. We went and worked on it and so on.[19]
On 28 February 2022, Vasyl Malyuk was appointed Deputy Head of the SSU. At that time, the main task was to cut off the enemy’s logistics on the way to Kyiv from Chornobyl direction. For this purpose, a unit was created within the SSU, which was joined by a number of agents. After the threat to Kyiv was neutralized, V.Malyuk organized operational and combat missions on Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson directions.
Experts note: ‘Perhaps for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine, the SSU was headed not by a political appointee, but by a professional who showed concrete results in a short period of time.’[20]
Ukrainian experts are increasingly often comparing the SSU to the Israeli Mossad: ‘Has the SSU become the ‘Ukrainian Mossad’? It is definitely on the way to that. It has carried out special operations of the highest level of complexity in the occupied territories: from blowing up the Crimean bridge to explosions at the strategic Machulishchi airfield in Belarus. In addition, the SSU is one of the main components of the Defence Forces. The Service is fighting in the hottest spots of the war - from Zmiinyi island to Bakhmut.’[21] Foreign media noted that the SSU’s missions are concentrated not only behind enemy lines but also in Russia: ‘Ukraine’s new intelligence capabilities proved valuable from the start of the war. The SBU, for example, obtained intelligence on high-value Russian targets, enabling strikes that killed several commanders and narrowly missed Russia’s top-ranked officer, Valery Gerasimov. Over the past year, the security services’ missions have increasingly centered on targets not only behind enemy lines but well into Russia.’[22] This has been possible because the SSU has significantly rearranged its activities, focusing on counterintelligence and significantly strengthening this line of work.
Vasyl Malyuk is credited with planning and conducting an operation on 12 April 2022 to detain the former head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, member of parliament Viktor Medvedchuk, suspected of treason.[20] After all the necessary procedural steps taken by the SSU, Medvedchuk was exchanged for 200 prisoners of war in September 2022. In total, as a result of that exchange, 215 Ukrainian PoWs, including Azov defenders, were returned from Russian captivity. The liberated captives were met in Chernihiv region by the then Acting Head of the SSU, Vasyl Malyuk.
Among the freed prisoners of war was an SSU officer with the call sign ‘Buryi'’ from the SSU Office in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, who, together with other servicemen, had been defending Mariupol at Azovstal to the last. Vasyl Malyuk gave him back his chevrons as a symbol of his re-joining the SSU team.
Unique special operations
In October 2022, two important events took place, which showed the vulnerability of the Crimean Bridge and the Russian Black Sea Fleet, as well as the SSU’s new military capabilities as an important component of Ukraine’s Defence Forces.
On 8 October 2022, an explosion hit the Crimean Bridge. Vasyl Malyuk confirmed the SSU’s involvement in this special operation only a long time later – on 26 July 2023, during the presentation of a postage stamp:[23][24][25] He also said that he and two other SSU officers had been involved in the preparation of the special operation to blow up the Crimean bridge.[26]
On the night of 28–29 October 2022, the first-ever attack by naval drones on Russian ships took place in the Sevastopol Bay. According to various estimates, as a result of this operation, 4 Russian ships sustained damage, including 2 missile frigates.
Regarding the situation with the Crimean fleet - the attack by maritime combat drones - it has been made public that the SSU devised that operational plan and carried it out. We did this side by side with the Navy, as well as with our concerned civilian citizens.[19]
Since then, the SSU has been improving its surface drones and presented its new modification – the Sea Baby. Capable of carrying 850 kg of explosives, these drones hit the Crimean Bridge the second time in July 2023. Other modifications of maritime drones, used by the SSU in July 2023, hit the Russian landing ship Olenogorsky Gornyak and the Sig tanker in Novorossiysk Bay.[27][28] Subsequently, the Sea Babies with experimental weapons hit the Samum missile ship (September 2023), the Buyan cruise missile carrier and the Pavel Derzhavin ship (October 2023).
Counterintelligence and investigations
Vasyl Maliuk’s led a campaign against traitors and Russian agents in Ukraine, including within the special service itself. He said:
We have exposed over 300 traitors since the full-scale invasion. Of these, 9 were in the SSU and 102 in the Defence Forces overall... The detention of Kulinich is just one example of systematic efforts to cleanse the SSU. I can speak about this because I personally supervised the intelligence collection on the traitor and his detention, as instructed by the President of Ukraine, and reported to him on the progress in the case. It was an unprecedented, long-term and secret operation. We worked together with another SSU officer. We had been after Kulinich for about a year, and detained him together with the SBI, since by law such actions are the responsibility of our colleagues.[29]
In 2022-2023, the SSU carried out a number of high-profile investigations that resulted in serving suspicion notices to some Ukrainian oligarchs and members of parliament, including:
businessman Ihor Kolomoisky - for misappropriation of UAH 5.8 billion between 2013 and 2014.[30]
businessman Dmytro Firtash and top management of his companies - for misappropriation of gas from Ukraine’s gas transmission system.[31]
oligarch under sanctions Pavlo Fuks - for large-scale financial fraud with Ukraine’s strategic enterprises and systemic tax evasion.[32]
chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech Nestor Shufrych - for high treason.[33]
member of the Ukrainian Parliament Oleksandr Dubinsky - for high treason and illegal transfer of persons across the state border.[35][36]
Vasyl Malyuk commented on the SSU’s fight against internal enemies as follows:
We are fulfilling the task set by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, simultaneously delivering a massive strike on the internal enemy. Multiple searches, serving suspicion notices and detention of offenders are clear indications of this. This is only the initial stage of the comprehensive and systematic work that the SSU is doing. And we are not going to stop! Those who have the audacity to harm Ukraine, especially in wartime, must clearly understand: we will handcuff them. The SSU will make every effort to do so.[37]
In the autumn of 2022, the SSU, together with other law enforcement agencies, launched comprehensive security and counterintelligence measures in churches and monasteries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) across Ukraine.[20] For this, the media began to call Malyuk ‘a fighter against agents in cassocks.’[7] As of November 2023, 68 criminal proceedings have been opened against representatives of the UOC (MP), 14 of whom – metropolitans. The crimes uncovered include: 20 facts of high treason, collaboration and aiding the aggressor state.
In a letter to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy of 28 September, the SSU Head Vasyl Malyuk proposed to MPs to expand the list of grounds provided by law for issuing a court ban on the activities of religious organisations whose authorized persons have been convicted of crimes against the foundations of Ukraine’s national security.[38] The number of criminal cases against the clergymen was one of the reasons why the Ukrainian parliament voted in the first reading on a law that would restrict activities of churches in Ukraine which are controlled by the aggressor state.’[39]
The President of Ukraine’s decoration For Participation in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (for conscientious attitude to performance of duties in the area of the Anti-Terrorist Operation);
SSU awards - badges:
For Valour;
For Courage;
Badge of Honor of the Security Service of Ukraine;
The SSU departmental award - Firearm (for valour and selflessness in the performance of duty).
^"Указ Президента України: №504/2022" [Decree of the President of Ukraine: No.504/2022]. President of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 18 July 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
^Указ Президента України від 26 липня 2021 року № 315/2021 «Про звільнення В. Малюка з посади першого заступника Голови Служби безпеки України — начальника Головного управління по боротьбі з корупцією та організованою злочинністю Центрального управління Служби безпеки України»
[Decree of the President of Ukraine No 315/2021 On Dismissal of V.Malyuk from the Position of the First Deputy Head of the SSU – Head of the Main Directorate for Combatting Corruption and Organized Crime]. President of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 26 July 2023
^Розпорядження Кабінету Міністрів України від 27 лютого 2022 року № 189-р «Про звільнення Малюка В. В. з посади заступника Міністра внутрішніх справ України».
[Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No 189-p On Dismissal of V.V.Malyuk from the Position of Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine]. 27 February 2022
^ Указ Президента України від 28 лютого 2022 року № 77/2022 «Про призначення В.Малюка заступником Голови Служби безпеки України»
[Decree of the President of Ukraine No 77/2022 On Appointment of V.V.Malyuk as the Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine]. President of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 28 February 2022
^Указ Президента України від 3 березня 2022 року № 99/2022 «Про звільнення В. Малюка з посади заступника Голови Служби безпеки України»
[Decree of the President of Ukraine No 99/2022 On Dismissal of V.V.Malyuk from the Position of the Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine]. President of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 3 March 2022
^Указ Президента України від 03 березня 2022 року № 100/2022 «Про призначення В.Малюка першим заступником Голови Служби безпеки України»
[Decree of the President of Ukraine No 100/2022 On Appointment of V.V.Malyuk as the First Deputy Head of the SSU]. President of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 3 March 2022
^Указ Президента України від 18 липня 2022 року № 504/2022 «Про тимчасове виконання обов'язків Голови Служби безпеки України»
[Decree of the President of Ukraine No 504/2022 On Temporary Fulfilment of Duties of the SSU Head]. President of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 18 July 2022
^ Указ Президента України від 25 березня 2022 року № 174/2022 «Про присвоєння військового звання»
[Decree of the President of Ukraine No 174/2022 On Awarding a Military Rank]. President of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 25 March 2022
^ Указ Президента України від 1 грудня 2022 року № 812/2022 «Про присвоєння військового звання»
[Decree of the President of Ukraine No 812/2022 On Awarding a Military Rank]. President of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 1 December 2022
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