Kyiv turf war between SBU and military intelligence erupts into a shootout
On the night of September 1, a shootout broke out between Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) and Defense Ministry intelligence (GUR) unit "Timur" in Kyiv's Berezniaky district. The clash stemmed from a dispute over the covert, week-long detention of a GUR-linked fighter by the SBU without formal notification.
Late in the evening on September 1, gunfire and shouting erupted in Kyiv's Berezniaky residential district, startling residents accustomed to missile and drone strikes but not close-range firefights. It later emerged that everyone involved in the shooting was Ukrainian: officers of the Security Service (SBU) and soldiers from "Timur," a special unit of the Defense Ministry's intelligence directorate (GUR).
A detention without explanation
Shortly after Independence Day, on August 23, three men detained Stepan Kaplunov, a fighter with the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) subordinate to GUR's "Timur" unit, near his home, forcing him into a car and driving off. For a week no agency confirmed his fate. The "Timur" commander appealed to GUR chief General Oleh Ivashchenko but received an evasive response, and GUR's own internal security office also had no information.
After repeated dead ends within the system, Kaplunov's comrades and lawyers filed a missing-persons report with police, which triggered a case over an alleged terrorist attack. It then emerged that the SBU had been holding Kaplunov the entire time.
A search that ended in gunfire
On the evening of September 1, an SBU operative team, accompanying Kaplunov along with two GUR internal security officers, arrived at his apartment to conduct a search. Unbeknownst to them, GUR had changed the locks and stationed armed "Timur" fighters inside, fearing the SBU might plant evidence.
When SBU officers broke down the door, two armed GUR soldiers confronted them and were quickly disarmed — but not before alerting fellow unit members. Another "Timur" fighter, Serhii Ivanov, arrived in the courtyard and, seeing SBU officers exiting the building, fired his rifle into the air and ordered them to raise their hands. The standoff escalated further with additional vehicles and personnel from both sides converging on the scene, though no one was injured. Ivanov and two other GUR soldiers were later detained.
