A Russian air force commander blamed for a deadly attack on a shopping center in Ukraine has been found stabbed to death with a hammer.

Ukraine's military intelligence said it had murdered Colonel Dmitry Golenkov, a senior officer in Russia's 52nd heavy bomber regiment, with the “hammer of justice.”

Golenkov is said to be behind one of the most egregious attacks on a civilian target of the war. Images of a rocket hitting the shopping center and its consequences spread widely.

Ukraine said on Monday: “A Russian Tu-22M3 pilot was liquidated on the territory of the Russian Federation. His head was smashed with a hammer.”

The Tupolev Tu-22M3 is a modernized version of a Soviet-era long-range strategic bomber.

Golenkov's body was found outside the village of Suponevo in Russia's Bryansk region.

It was not clear how Ukraine carried out the killing, but Ukrainian special forces and partisans have expanded operations inside the occupied territories and Russia since the start of the war.

A video shot at night showed Golenkov's body lying face down in bushland with his head covered in blood. He had been carrying a white plastic bag.

From his base in the neighboring Kaluga region, Golenkov ordered bombing raids over Ukraine.

One of his targets was the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk in June 2022, where 22 people were killed.

At the time of the attack, the mall was packed with shoppers on a Saturday afternoon. Ukrainian officials said there was no military target in the area.

Golenkov was also accused of being involved in a January 2023 bombing of Dnipro in Ukraine that killed 46 people.

According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Golenkov held the position of chief of staff of the aviation squadron, which gave him an important planning role.

“He was involved in rocket attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets,” it said.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment.

Ukrainian military intelligence has developed a reputation for carrying out daring operations behind enemy lines, and this is not the first time it has alleged the murder of Russian military personnel in Russia.

In 2023, it used data from a fitness app to plan and carry out the murder of a Russian submarine captain in Krasnodar who had fired missiles into Ukraine.

Dozens of collaborating officials in occupied parts of Ukraine were also murdered by Ukrainian agents.

In 2023, the Ukrainian military also planted a bomb in a bust to kill a Russian military blogger at a street cafe in St. Petersburg.

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