He was assassinated in a car bomb attack in central Kyiv on 27 June 2017, having only recently returned from the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine.

He collected intel on their locations and weapons, which was able to substantiate Ukraine's position in the war criminal trial in The Hague on Russia's armed aggression.

Maksym's father, Mykhailo, commander of the AN-2 aircraft crew, worked at the Vinnytsia Airport, where he died in 1985 in his 33rd year.

[10][11][12][3] On the same day a similar car bomb explosion in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast killed another colonel and wounded three more officers of the Security Service of Ukraine.

Former government adviser in Georgia and Moldova Molly K. McKew believed Shapoval's assassination was related with this cyberattack.

[15] On 17 April 2019, Head of SBU Vasyl Hrytsak announced the name of the saboteur who laid the blast; Oleg Shutov, who was a resident of Donetsk, an employee of the so-called "DPR Ministry of Civil Defense" Special Operations Center.

He was present at the time in the Donbas in the so-called center of special operations of the "DPR Ministry of Civil Defense" during the explosions of Kharaberyush and Shapoval's cars.