The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | July 16th, 2025: Putin’s Assassins Eliminated In Kyiv & Israel Strikes Syria's Capital

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:  First—Russian assassins carry out a high profile hit on the streets of Kyiv, gunning down a top Ukrainian special operations commander, marking the latest casualty of the covert war being fought behind the front lines. We’ll have the details. Later in the show—Syria’s embattled Druze minority has reached a second ceasefire agreement with the government in Damascus after several days of bloody clashes that left hundreds dead. The deal follows a wave of powerful airstrikes in Damascus carried out by the Israeli military to prevent further attacks on the Druze community. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold DeleteMe: Visit ⁠https://joindeleteme.com/BRIEF⁠ & Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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All right, let's get briefed. First up, Russian assassins carry out a high-profile hit on the streets of Kiev, gunning down a top Ukrainian special operations commander, marking the latest casualty of the covert war that's being fought behind the front lines and off the radar. We'll have those details. Later in the show, Syria's embattled Drew's minority has reached a second ceasefire agreement with the government in Damascus, Syria, after several days of bloody clashes that left

hundreds dead. The deal follows a wave of powerful airstrikes in Damascus, carried out by the Israeli military, to prevent further attacks on the Druze community. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. I wanted to start things off today with a story that really didn't get much airplay in the mainstream press, but illustrates the high-stakes covert war unfolding beneath the headlines of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Now, we usually talk about this war in terms of territory or weapon systems and massive missile barrages. Big picture stuff, but there's another side of this war

that's happening in the shadows. Last Thursday, Colonel Ivan Vodorinich, a top Ukrainian special operations commander, was gunned down in broad daylight on the streets of Kiev. Now, he was carrying shopping bags when the assassin emerged from behind a parked car. There's no shouting, no warning. just five precision shots, and Voronich collapsed on the pavement as pedestrians scattered.

Surveillance footage later captured the attack, a sudden surgical hit by an assassin who fled the scene alongside a female accomplice. Now, Voronich was no ordinary target. He was a senior officer in Ukraine's SBU intelligence service. It's part of a division responsible for covert missions deep inside Russia. According to multiple sources, Voronich was one of the masterminds behind a number of successful operations. That includes most recently Operation Spider-Web. That operation reportedly wiped out more than two dozen airplanes parked at Russian airfields, delivering a significant and embarrassing blow to Moscow's Air Force and humiliating the Kremlin leadership. He was also reportedly involved in planning last year's Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region.

Now, in short, Vodonich wasn't just another name on a list. He was one of the Kremlin, most wanted. He was one of Kyiv's most capable commanders, and it appears that Vladimir Putin wanted him gone. Just days after the assassination, Ukraine's SBU tracked down the suspected killers, a Russian male operative, and a woman identified as 34-year-old Norman Gullieva. According to the SPU, the pair were part of a, quote, agent combat group from Russia's FSB, deployed into Ukraine in advance to carry out the hit. Ukrainian agents managed to locate the safehouse where the assassins had been hiding and when the FSB operatives resisted arrest during the raid, while they were killed right there on the spot. The SPU released footage of their bodies, which is its own message

to Moscow's spymasters. The Ukrainian security service says the FSB team had surveilled Vorninich for days, learning as routes and routines. They were reportedly handed the coordinates to a hidden cache containing the murder weapon, a pistol equipped with a suppressor. Inside Russia, pro-Kremlin outlets and telegram channels, wasted no time celebrating that hit. One post from a propaganda channel called it a, quote, fat target, adding applause to the liquidators. Another described Voderniche's unit as a major thorn in Russia's side, an elite force responsible for sabotage operations in Russian territory. Ukrainian officials have framed the murder as a retaliatory strike, a Kremlin-ordered response to the success of special ops teams like Vortanich's.

Ukraine's security chief didn't mince words. He called the colonel, quote, our brave comrade and praised the covert counterintelligence operation that found and eliminated the Russian assassins. Now, this hit wasn't an isolated incident, and both sides are carrying out these covert operations. Over the last two years, Ukraine has been linked to a string of high-profile killings

inside Russia, bombings like the one that killed Nationalists of Dariadugina, car bombs in Moscow, and hits on senior Russian command. enders. Russia has returned a favor with operations as well like this one, reaching deep into Kiev. Now, these shadow missions show a side of the war that most headlines miss. It's a covert tit for tact between intelligence services, where the battlefield isn't Danes, or Karkiv, but it's a quiet street in Kiev or an entrance to an apartment building

in Moscow. The front lines themselves may be measured in kilometers and drone strikes, but this quiet war, the one fought by spies and saboteurs, may be just as critical to shaping how it all ends. And the successful operations resonate deeply inside the Kremlin walls and within Keeb's leadership. Up next, after another day of intense fighting and Israeli airstrikes in Damascus, Syrian leaders have reached a ceasefire deal with the country's Druze minority. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let's take a brief moment, shall we?

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This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list, not one more. With Carvana, it is. Just go to Carvana.com, enter your license plate or VIN, and get a real offer down to the penny. No back and forth, no surprises, just an experience you can trust. Like your offer? Accept it. Schedule pickup, and we'll come to you with a check in hand. Your car, your timeline, your terms. Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Delivery fees and terms may apply. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. After several days of bloody clashes that left at least 200

and 48 people dead, Syria's embattled Drew's minority has reached a second ceasefire agreement with the government in Damascus. Now, the deal, which takes immediate effect in the Drew's majority city of Sweda, was announced Wednesday morning by Drew's religious leader Sheikh Yusuf Ajarbu and Syria's official government news agency. It's the second ceasefire to be declared in less than 24 hours after the first truce collapsed hours after it was announced Tuesday night, that's according to a report from Reuters. Under the agreement, regime forces will deploy the checkpoints in the area securing roads in and out of Sweda. State institutions in the city will resume operations, and a Joint Committee of Druze and Syrian regime officials will be established to investigate

the crimes and legal violations that occurred during the fighting that engulfed the city. Additionally, all detainees arrested during the unrest will reportedly be released. The announcement of the ceasefire comes after a third day of sectarian violence, between Syrian government forces and Druze fighters in southern Syria that left hundreds dead. Fighting initially erupted in Sweda on Sunday between local Druze groups and Sunni-Islamist Bedouin fighters. Syrian Islamist government forces soon joined the fray, in theory, to stop the fighting, but they were accused by community leaders of backing the Bedouin militias and quickly engaged in clashes with Druze militias. The Druze are an Arab minority sect that,

branched out from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, including some 24,000 that live in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights near the Syrian border. They're widely regarded inside Israel as a loyal minority, with many members serving in the IDF. As the clash is intensified, Israeli forces entered the fight, conducting airstrikes against the Syrian military on Monday and Tuesday. Israeli officials said they were trying to protect the Druze community from Islamic extremists and regime forces, and to enforce a demilitarized zone in southern Syria near the Israeli border. A ceasefire between regime forces and the Druze was briefly declared Tuesday evening, but quickly broke down after reports that Syrian troops had continued attacking civilians.

That prompted Drew's spiritual leaders to call on the community to keep fighting. As of Wednesday morning, at least 248 people had been killed in the bloodshed, including 92 members of the Druze minority, at least 138 Syrian security personnel, and some 18 Bedouin fighters. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at one point during the fighting, 21 Druze civilians were killed in summary executions by government forces. Israel escalated their operations on Wednesday morning, unleashing powerful airstrikes on the Syrian capital of Damascus near the presidential palace, leveling parts of Syria's Defense Ministry bill, Syria's health ministry said one person was killed and 28 were left injured by the strikes.

Israeli officials vowed to destroy any Syrian government forces attacking the Druze community and demanded their immediate withdrawal from southern Syria. In a statement, Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said the IDF would, quote, continue to operate vigorously in Sweda to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until they withdraw completely, end quote. Israeli leaders remain deeply mistrustful of the Sunni Islamist government that replaced the regime of Bashar al-Assad after his overthrow in December. That government is now, of course, led by former al-Qaeda member Ahmed al-Shara, who, despite renouncing his past ties to terrorism and pledges to

unify the war-fractured country's religious minorities, well, has struggled to maintain stability. leaders in Damascus have condemned Israel's airstrikes as a blatant violation of their sovereignty while framing the violence in Sweda as criminal unrest caused by bandits and criminals. In a statement on Wednesday, Syrian officials said all those responsible for the lawlessness will be brought to justice. The latest unrest has rattled the Trump administration at the same time, which is bet heavily on Al-Shara as a stabilizing force in the region, encouraging normalization with Israel. Now, a senior official told Axios on Wednesday that the White House had asked Israel to halt its

strikes and open up direct talks with Syria, fearing that any further escalation could undermine progress on a new security agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem. But given the repeated clashes between regime forces and the Druze community, those talks now hang by a threat. The major question now will be whether the latest ceasefire will hold, and if Al-Shera can reign in the the various extremist groups, including those with significant ISIS connections, threatening the country's religious minorities. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday, the 16th of July. Now, if you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do,

please reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And as you've no doubt heard from all the major media outlets, if you want to listen to the show ad-free, well, you can do that. Just become a premium member of the president's daily brief, by visiting PDB Premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe.

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