‘He’s a bulldog’: the man behind the success of Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb

A mural in Kyiv depicting the head of Ukraine’s security service, Vasyl Malyuk. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

It was unsurprising to those who know Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), that his statement announcing the success of Operation Spiderweb had a certain physicality to it.

The audacious drone attacks on distant bases hosting Russia’s strategic bombers was “a serious slap in the face to Russia’s power”, said Malyuk, 42, a sometime boxer and weightlifter. “Our strikes will continue as long as Russia terrorises Ukrainians with missiles and Shahed drones.”