The gunfight that injured three soldiers occurred between employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the General Department of Defense Intelligence (HUR), according to Ukrainian media on September 2 (local time).
Responsibility must be pursued to the end, including personnel decisions for the leaders of the two special task forces involved in the incident. Both the SBU and HUR must conduct internal inspections," Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky affirmed, calling the confrontation "a completely shameful event".
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko and the State Investigation Service of Ukraine were assigned to clarify. On the same evening, Mr. Zelensky announced the dismissal of a senior SBU official.
The shooting occurred on the morning of September 2 on Yuriya Shumskoho street, Dniprovskyi district, east of Kiev capital. Video on social media recorded scenes of many people moving around cars blocking the middle of the alley, accompanied by shouts and gunshots. The area was then completely blockaded. Presidential Advisor Dmytro Lytvyn confirmed that the two related units are SBU and HUR.
The focus of the conflict is Mr. Stepan Kaplunov, a Russian citizen, Deputy Commander of the Russian Volunteer Army (RVC) - a paramilitary force under the HUR and listed by Moscow as a terrorist organization.
Mr. Kaplunov came to Ukraine to attend the National Day holiday on August 24, but was later "kidnapped by unidentified people right in his home yard," RVC announced on Telegram on September 1. Ukrainian media believes that this arrest has pushed the already simmering tension between the two agencies into armed conflict.
The SBU and the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced that they are cracking down on a terrorist plot prepared by Russia targeting "one of the leaders of the Russian opposition movement". According to this agency, the killer group attacked Ukrainian personnel when they conducted a search at the scene, forcing Alfa special forces to fire back, injuring and arresting many subjects.
HUR initially issued a statement in the same direction but then removed it. The commander of the "Timur" unit of HUR said that Mr. Kaplunov was "kidnapped in broad daylight" by SBU members and detained without legal basis. According to the commander, after the two sides agreed on legal procedures, the SBU suddenly arrested HUR representatives and then actively opened fire on unarmed officers.
Lawyer Taras Borovskyi, representing Mr. Kaplunov, accused SBU agents of arbitrarily and urgently searching his client's apartment at night without a court order, not allowing lawyers to access, and rejected the statement of "preventing assassination attempts", calling it a trick to legitimize illegal arrests and just a "media play". Mr. Kaplunov has now been released, but his whereabouts have not been revealed.
Kirill Budanov, head of HUR for the period 2020 - 2026 and now Chief of the Office of the President of Ukraine, reacted strongly: "No one has the right to kidnap soldiers, open fire on the streets of our cities, or order and execute illegal orders.
According to RT, the two agencies have clashed many times in the past. In 2022, the SBU was said to have hastily executed negotiator Denys Kireyev on suspicion of spying for Russia, who was later identified as working for HUR.
