Shootout between Ukraine's SBU and HUR spy services in Kyiv called 'disgraceful' by Zelenskyy

A shootout erupted in central Kyiv on Wednesday morning between officers of two Ukrainian security agencies — the domestic security service SBU and the military intelligence directorate HUR. Several people were injured, including three HUR officers.

The SBU said on Thursday that the clash "definitely shouldn't have happened" and that it was cooperating with state investigators. According to local media, the confrontation was triggered by the SBU's recent arrest of a Russian national who had been fighting for Ukraine under HUR supervision. HUR officers arrived while the SBU was searching an apartment connected to that investigation, and shots were fired.

The SBU said it had worked with the HUR to foil a Russian-backed terrorist plot against a Russian opposition leader who had recently arrived in Ukraine. In a separate statement, it said its officers had come under armed attack during the operation and used their weapons in response.

On Thursday, the SBU released a video of the detained Russian man, arrested last month, in which he says a person acting for Russian intelligence had tried to recruit him to assassinate Ukrainian defence personnel and others. His lawyer said the video had been recorded under pressure and released to "whitewash" the shootout. The man has since been released from SBU custody.

Hours after the incident, Zelenskyy fired Oleh Khramov, the SBU's head of the department for protection of state secrets. "Shooting here in Ukraine is permitted only at Russian occupiers, in defence of Ukraine. Our state will never regard any other shootout as acceptable,” he wrote on social media, adding that both the SBU and HUR must investigate. Ukraine's main investigative agency has also opened a probe.

The episode lands at a politically sensitive time for Zelenskyy, who recently rebuffed calls from sacked defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov to hold wartime elections — the biggest internal challenge to his authority since Russia's invasion began. He also recently dismissed a deputy presidential chief of staff amid reports she was under investigation over an alleged money-laundering scheme.

Separately, a 71-year-old man was shot outside a Kyiv medical clinic on Thursday morning and remains in serious condition; an attempted murder investigation has been opened. The shootings come as Kyiv endures intense Russian bombardment, with at least five people killed nationwide in strikes on Wednesday night, and Ukraine facing a shortage of Patriot air defence interceptors.