Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
Three were injured during the incident.
Residents in a quiet Kyiv neighbourhood woke up to an unexpected crisis this week.
According to the Financial Times, a confrontation between armed officers from two of Ukraine’s top intelligence agencies resulted in shots being fired, leaving three people injured.
Footage circulating online appears to show the confrontation. A commander from HUR has confirmed that there was a stand-off.
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The confrontation involved Ukraine’s main security service, known as the SBU, and its military intelligence agency, HUR. Officers from the SBU’s elite Alpha unit opened fire after a stand-off near an apartment building.
According to the FT, the agencies have provided conflicting accounts of what led to the incident, with the SBU first saying the agency was working with HUR to stop a Russian terrorist attack.
Later, the SBU said the stand-off was a result of a “group of individuals” trying to keep the SBU from carrying out a search.
A commander from HUR, on the other hand, accused officers from the SBU of firing at unarmed HUR agents.
Zelenskyy slams infighting
According to The Guardian, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy quickly condemned the clash as an “absolutely disgraceful incident” during his nightly address.
He demanded swift answers from prosecutors and immediately fired a senior SBU official.
“Here in Ukraine, the only people anyone should be shooting at are the Russian occupiers, in defence of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “No other exchange of gunfire will ever be treated by our state as something anyone is permitted to engage in.”
Fight over commander
The violence started during an SBU search linked to a commander in the Russian Volunteer Corps. Stepan Kaplunov had been detained days earlier by security agents. When officers brought him home to gather evidence, military intelligence units stepped in to block them.
SBU officials claimed that armed individuals used vehicles to trap their officers during the operation. They stated that agents faced an attack during a “pre-trial investigation into the terrorist act organised by the FSB of the Russian Federation.”
A military commander countered that SBU personnel shot at unarmed agents despite a truce. Kaplunov later told news outlet NV that he only confessed to working for Moscow after being held in a secret facility under “psychological pressure.”
“There must be accountability, including personnel decisions by the heads of the intelligence and security services,” Zelenskyy said. Both agencies now face full internal reviews as prosecutors investigate who ordered the shots.
