Shootout breaks out between SBU and GUR officers in Kyiv
A armed confrontation broke out in Kyiv on Wednesday between Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) and military intelligence (GUR), leaving several people injured. The incident is now being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor General's Office.
A serious incident unfolded in Kyiv on Wednesday involving two of Ukraine's security agencies — the Security Service (SBU) and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR). The SBU initially stated it had jointly foiled a terrorist attack, allegedly planned by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), targeting a leader of a Russian opposition political movement who had come to Ukraine for Independence Day.
According to the SBU's account, its operational team came under attack from an armed group while conducting an investigative search at a certain address, with attackers blocking the road with vehicles. The SBU's "Alpha" special unit was called in and used weapons to stop the attack. The SBU says people who resisted were injured, and those detained belong to a unit of Ukraine's Defense Forces.
A different account emerges
Social media and Ukrainian outlets, including UNIAN and Ukrainska Pravda, reported instead that a shootout occurred directly between SBU and GUR personnel in Kyiv's Dnipro district, with three GUR-side personnel wounded. The incident has been linked to the disappearance of Stepan Kaplunov, deputy commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a unit operating under GUR, which the RDK described as an abduction.
Kaplunov's lawyer, Taras Borovskyi, said his client was abducted on August 23 and that, on the night of September 2, SBU officers brought him to his own apartment for a search. According to the lawyer, fellow servicemen who arrived at the scene were met with SBU gunfire; an agreement was later reached to release those detained, but as the investigative procedure was wrapping up, SBU officers again tried to take Kaplunov's colleagues away, triggering a physical clash and shooting. Two people were seriously injured and one lightly injured, the lawyer said.
The incident is now under investigation by Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor General's Office, which has opened pretrial proceedings over threats to the life of a law enforcement officer. Presidential Office head Kyrylo Budanov stressed that the investigation must be thorough and objective, but that no one has the right to abduct servicemen or open fire on city streets with impunity. President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that the heads of both agencies publicly explain what happened.
