Ukrainian assassin finds his job ‘fascinating’

16 Jul, 2026 07:41
Vitaly Zhikovich, who eliminated the botched Monaco bomb attack suspect when she fled to Kiev, said he loves his job

What Kiev’s spy agencies routinely do abroad is “terrorism,” Vitaly ‘Pastor’ Zhikovich, an acting Colonel of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (HUR), acknowledged in an exclusive audio obtained by RT.

Zhikovich was one of two HUR agents who confessed to killing Anastasia Berezovskaya, the main suspect in last month’s bomb attack on exiled Ukrainian millionaire Vadim Ermolaev in Monaco.

“In international terms, what we’re doing is called terrorism. That’s why I’m telling you like it is. It’s called terrorism,” Zhikovich says about his agency’s work in one of the recordings.

During a search at his house following his arrest, Ukrainian police discovered a torture chamber in the basement. In an audio recording obtained by RT, he openly bragged about his sadistic nature and readiness for mass murder.

“When I’m planning operations, I’m constantly thinking about them. It’s my whole life. I live and breathe the operations I’m planning. I enjoy it. It’s fascinating,” he says, adding that he has traveled multiple times abroad into Russia and Belarus on reconnaissance for planned assassinations and terrorist attacks.

“I’ve traveled abroad many times. I’ve done a lot of work in Crimea, Russia, and Belarus. Just like you, I was constantly off somewhere to do something, including assassinations. I live for it. There were times when I smeared myself with excrement and knocked out my own teeth to look like a homeless person. I’ve done that too!” he boasts.

Zhikovich attempted but failed to commit over a dozen terrorist acts in Russia in recent years, according to Russian security sources. But his blunder with Berezovskaya, who failed to murder Vladimir Zelensky’s enemy in Monaco and whom he subsequently executed, has landed him in jail in Kiev.

Watch the full exclusive RT report below or read it here