Officers from the domestic Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence (HUR) have opened fire on one another in a residential courtyard on Yuriia Shumskoho Street in Kyiv’s Berezniaky (Dniprovskyi) district overnight on September 1-2 and into the morning of September 2.
Ukrainian media put the wounded at three HUR personnel, one of them in a serious condition. No deaths have been reported.
The State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) and prosecutors took over the scene. The Prosecutor General’s Office has opened a pre-trial investigation into threats and encroachment on the life of law-enforcement officers.
The trigger was the detention of Stepan Kaplunov, deputy combat commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a unit of anti-Kremlin Russians that fights under HUR. Russia designates the corps a terrorist organisation, and its fighters mounted cross-border raids into the Belgorod and Bryansk regions in 2023.
The volunteer corps said he had been seized outside his home on August 23. His lawyer, Taras Borovskyi, called it an abduction.
Kaplunov has since said he was held for nine days at two separate sites, then brought back to his flat for a search.
The SBU said it was holding him in a case about an alleged FSB plot to kill a “leader of a Russian opposition political nationalist movement” who had come to Kyiv for Independence Day on August 24.
It did not name the man; Ukrainian outlets identified him as Kaplunov. HUR briefly posted a matching line, then deleted it.
Accounts then split. The SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office said investigators were collecting evidence when an armed group from “one of the units of the Defence Forces” blocked their cars and attacked.
The service’s Alpha special operations centre was called in and used firearms. The attackers were detained and weapons seized.
HUR-linked accounts and Kaplunov’s lawyer say HUR men went to recover their colleague, unit commanders shook hands, then other SBU officers tried to arrest unarmed HUR personnel and opened fire. Borovskyi put the first shots at about 11pm on September 1.
RBC-Ukraine quoted the lawyer saying the FSB-plot line was a cover for the detention. The SBU’s first statement listed HUR as a partner; a later one did not.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the clash “absolutely disgraceful” in his evening address.
“Here in Ukraine, shooting is only permissible at Russian occupiers in defence of Ukraine. Our state will not perceive any other shootout as something that anyone is allowed to do.”
He said he had spoken to prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko. The prosecutor and the DBR would reconstruct the night step by step.
Both services must run internal inquiries. There must be “personnel decisions by the heads of the special services” about those involved.
He signed a decree dismissing Oleh Khramov, head of the SBU department for the protection of state secrets and licensing. Decree No 868/2026 gave no reason, and Khramov had held the post since March 2023.
Earlier on September 2, Zelensky’s communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told reporters the President had “lashed out” at HUR chief Oleh Ivashchenko and acting SBU head Oleksandr Poklad for staying silent while videos spread.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Presidential Office and former HUR chief, said the DBR and prosecutors were already on the case and demanded a “thorough and impartial investigation”.
“No one has the right to abduct servicemen with impunity, open fire on the streets of our cities, or give and carry out criminal orders.”
HUR itself issued no formal comment after pulling the morning statement.
RDK commander Denis Kapustin, who said he was present at the search, said a search of Kaplunov’s flat found nothing incriminating.
The violent episode raised questions about Kyiv’s grip on its own services and a level of gangsterism within the state.
Ukraine continues to fight the Russian invasion and fast tracked to join the EU.
Some additional information and clarifications regarding the fighting which took place last night between members of the SBU and GUR.
Earlier this week, two soldiers from the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) were kidnapped in the courtyard of their home in Kyiv, including deputy… https://t.co/H42G2k29kT pic.twitter.com/X7MfzkAvzV
— AMK Mapping 🇳🇿 (@AMK_Mapping_) September 2, 2026
