“We have destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the Russian Federation.” That was Vasyl Malyuk, then head of Ukraine’s Security Service, describing the sea-drone attacks on the Crimean Bridge in a November 2023 documentary, “SBU. Special operations of victory,” as UNN reported on November 24, 2023.
Moscow, he said, had put approximately $1 billion into protecting the crossing and sold it as a fortress. Russian forces ended up leaning on ferries to move weapons. The weapon was the “Sea Baby,” a maritime drone that Malyuk called a system in active use for Ukrainian defense, not simply a naval gadget. “We have actually turned the philosophy of naval operations upside down,” he said.
From acting chief to the drone war
Malyuk ran the SBU as acting chief from July 2022 and was appointed head in February 2023, the Kyiv Independent recorded. Under him the agency moved well beyond counterintelligence work. By August 12, 2025, when he spoke to the “We-Ukraine” TV channel, he held the rank of general-lieutenant and put the SBU’s deep-strike drone tally at more than 200 objectives inside Russian territory, according to United24 Media.
He listed the targets: military-industrial complexes, logistics centers, command posts, and “oil extraction and refining industries.” The SBU’s Special Operations Center ‘A’, he said, is “the flagship unit for airstrike operations, not just in the SBU but across Ukraine.”
One strike he singled out hit a Russian munitions depot in Toropets. “Half of the 120mm mines were wiped out,” Malyuk said, from a stockpile of 160,000 tons. The SBU sent 120 drones; other Ukrainian units added 20 more.
Another operation reached a logistics hub near Kzyl-Yul in the Republic of Tatarstan, approximately 1,300 kilometers from Ukraine, on August 9. It reportedly stored Shahed drones and foreign-made components.
Spiderweb and the front line
The Kyiv Independent counted among his tenure’s best-known operations “Operation Spiderweb” in June, in which concealed drones struck air bases thousands of kilometers away across Russia. In December, the SBU reported that Sea Baby drones had hit a Russian submarine in Novorossiysk. The agency also took part in several attacks on the Crimean Bridge.
Malyuk described “drone-storm” tactics too, pairing unmanned systems with ground forces. In the Kursk region, he said, operators sent drones “into every opening of the outpost” before ground robots and tactical groups moved in. The result: 102 Russian soldiers captured and over 20 neutralized.
Resignation in January 2026
On January 5, 2026, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Malyuk would step down as SBU head but stay in the service for asymmetric operations against Russia. “(Maliuk) knows how to do this best and will continue within the SBU system,” Zelensky said. The Kyiv Independent, citing Ukrainian Pravda, said the resignation came under direct pressure from the president.
The dispute centered on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). After July legislation that effectively stripped NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of independence, the SBU arrested several NABU employees, alleging links to Russia. Activists said the arrests targeted investigators looking into people close to Zelensky. The detainees were released.
Senior military commanders publicly warned against removing Malyuk in wartime. Zelensky named Yevhenii Khmara, who has led the SBU’s Alpha special operations unit since 2023, as acting head, pending a parliamentary vote on the formal dismissal.
Sources
- Ukraine's Security Service Chief Resigns Under Zelensky Pressure, to Focus on Operations Against Russia
- Ukraine's Deep Strike Drone Operations Hit Over 200 Russian Targets, SBU Head Malyuk Reveals
- Head of the Security Service of Ukraine: Crimean bridge is doomed
