b. 1983
Vasyl Maliuk
Head of the SBU (2022–2026)
More than 40 Russian strategic bombers hit in a single day: Operation Spiderweb on 1 June 2025 was commanded by Vasyl Maliuk. The general from Korostyshiv led the Security Service of Ukraine from 2022 to 2026. Hero of Ukraine.
Key accomplishments
- In state security service since 2001; holds a PhD-level degree in law (kandydat nauk)
- Head of the Security Service of Ukraine: acting head from July 2022, head from 7 February 2023 to January 2026
- Commander of Operation Spiderweb (1 June 2025), in which more than 40 Russian strategic aircraft were hit
- Lieutenant general (2024); Hero of Ukraine (decree No. 299/2025 of 8 May 2025)
The painting in his office
On 7 February 2023, the day parliament appointed him head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Maliuk told MPs about a painting in his office. It shows Cossack Mamai, a hero of Ukrainian folk epic, sitting with a bandura on the skulls of Ukraine’s enemies. “So death is the only prospect we can offer the occupiers,” Maliuk concluded.
From field officer to head of the SBU
Maliuk was born in 1983 in Korostyshiv, in Zhytomyr Oblast. In 2001 he began serving in the state security service, and in 2005 he graduated in law from the SBU’s National Academy. In regional offices he rose from field officer to head of a department fighting corruption and organized crime, and he took part in the anti-terrorist operation in the east. In 2020–2021 he was first deputy head of the SBU.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 he returned to that post, became acting head of the service in July, and its head in February 2023.
Strikes the world knows about
Under Maliuk, the SBU blew up the Crimean Bridge twice, in 2022 and 2023, hit 11 Russian warships and began fighting with sea drones. He is also credited with the capture in April 2022 of Viktor Medvedchuk, an MP suspected of treason and Vladimir Putin’s kum, a relative by godparenthood. On 21 September 2022 Medvedchuk was exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war, among them the commanders of the Azovstal defence: Denys Prokopenko, Sviatoslav Palamar and Serhii Volynskyi. Maliuk was there in person to meet the freed soldiers.
On 1 June 2025, in Operation Spiderweb, which he commanded, SBU drones hit more than 40 strategic aircraft that Russia had used to launch missiles at Ukraine. The Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine calls it the largest drone attack on airbases in history.
Why it matters
According to the encyclopedia, Spiderweb continued the tradition of surprise asymmetric strikes in war; it has been compared, among others, with the Doolittle Raid of 1942, the American air raid on Japan in response to Pearl Harbor. In early January 2026 Maliuk stepped down as head of the SBU, and on 13 January parliament dismissed him. The SBU’s strikes under his leadership showed that a war can be fought far beyond the front line.
