A Kyiv court has released two security officers, one serving with Ukraine's military intelligence agency GUR and the other with the Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, after a shooting between personnel from the two agencies on September 2, Radio Svoboda reported. The shooting was a rare public clash between two of Ukraine's most powerful security and intelligence agencies.
Both men were released under personal surety rather than held in custody. The GUR officer is suspected of attempting to kill a law enforcement officer, while the SBU officer faces accusations of exceeding his authority through the use of a weapon. Personal surety is a common non-custodial measure under Ukrainian law in which third parties guarantee that a suspect will comply with legal obligations.
GUR, formally the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine's Ministry of Defence, is Ukraine's military intelligence service and has carried out numerous clandestine operations against Russian forces since Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022. The SBU is Ukraine's principal domestic security agency, responsible for counterintelligence, counterterrorism and the protection of state secrets.
Drone strike hits SBU headquarters
The report followed a Russian drone strike on the SBU's Central Directorate building in central Kyiv earlier the same day. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the drone had been aimed directly at the office of the head of the SBU.
The SBU press service said the Russian military failed to hit its target and that the head of the agency was not hurt. Zelensky also said he had received a briefing from the SBU's acting chief, Oleksandr Poklad, on preparations for what the president described as Ukraine's active response actions to Russian strikes.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said the strike came as diplomatic efforts to revive peace negotiations were under way, describing it as a serious escalation.
A commander's alleged abduction
The shooting came a week after a separate dispute over the fate of a Ukrainian commander. The Russian Volunteer Corps, a unit made up of Russian nationals who have fought alongside Ukraine's armed forces against Moscow since 2022, said one of its deputy commanders, Stepan Kaplunov, had been abducted. The unit has previously said it staged incursions into Russian border regions and describes itself as fighting to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After the dispute became public, the commander of the GUR's Tymur Special Unit told Radio Svoboda that SBU officers had seized and held the GUR field commander. Media reports said the SBU suspected Kaplunov of preparing the assassination of Akhmed Zakayev, the head of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in exile. Zakayev has lived in exile for years and is wanted by Russian authorities. GUR said the episode was an attempt to discredit Ukraine's military intelligence service.
Radio Svoboda had earlier laid out what is known about the armed confrontation between the two agencies in a report titled Target: Budanov?
Zelensky calls incident shameful
President Zelensky reacted sharply to the shooting, describing the situation as shameful. The episode has fuelled talk of tension between Kyrylo Budanov, who spent years as head of GUR and now leads the Office of the President, and Poklad, the acting head of the SBU.
Some commentators have suggested that Russia's FSB security service could be stoking the rivalry between the two agencies, though Radio Svoboda said the question remained a matter of debate among observers. The FSB is Russia's principal domestic intelligence agency, and Ukrainian officials have long accused it of running influence operations against Kyiv.
Both suspects remain free while the shooting is investigated, and the wider standoff between the GUR and the SBU has yet to be resolved.
