Officers from Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence and the Security Service of Ukraine engaged in a street shootout in Kyiv on September 2. The armed confrontation took place in broad daylight on the capital's left bank, leaving three intelligence personnel wounded.
The clash unfolded directly among residential apartment buildings in the Bereznyaki neighborhood. Eyewitnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots, seeing bloodstains on the pavement, and observing armed personnel from both state security institutions operating in the area.
Ukraine's Security Service, known as the SBU, is the country's primary internal security and counter-intelligence agency. The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense, abbreviated as GUR, oversees military intelligence and special tactical operations.
Armed confrontation in residential neighborhood
Following the incident, the SBU issued an official statement asserting that its personnel were conducting a planned special operation when they came under attack by members of another branch of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
In response to an inquiry from Radio Svoboda, the Timur Special Unit of the GUR released a video statement by its commander presenting a contrasting narrative of the events.
The GUR commander said that SBU officers had kidnapped a combat commander from one of GUR's operational units in broad daylight. He added that the officer was being detained without any formal legal charges.
The commander explained that military intelligence sought to clarify the reasons for the detention and was acting to ensure all procedural steps complied with Ukrainian law. He thanked the commander of the SBU's elite Alpha special forces unit, who personally accompanied him to the scene to de-escalate the confrontation.
However, the GUR commander noted that after an agreement was reached to proceed under standard legal protocols, other SBU officers who were not affiliated with the Alpha unit began detaining GUR personnel. He stated that these SBU officers opened fire without warning against unarmed GUR servicemen, whom he had ordered not to react to provocations.
The commander added that he trusted the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation to complete a thorough investigation into the incident.
Alleged abduction of volunteer fighter
Attorney Taras Borovsky, who represents GUR serviceman Stepan Kaplunov, provided further details regarding the origins of the confrontation. Kaplunov serves as a fighter in the Russian Volunteer Corps, a paramilitary formation of Russian citizens fighting for Ukraine under the authority of military intelligence.
Borovsky said that SBU personnel abducted Kaplunov on August 23 without producing a detention warrant or permitting a defense lawyer to be present. He added that Kaplunov's location remained completely unknown to his defense team until late in the evening on September 1.
During the night between September 1 and September 2, SBU officers brought Kaplunov back to his Kyiv apartment to perform an urgent search in his presence. GUR personnel stationed at the apartment raised an alarm, prompting fellow servicemen and supporters of the Timur Special Unit to gather at the scene.
Borovsky stated that the initial groups of GUR personnel arriving at the apartment building were attacked by SBU forces. Temporary peace agreements were eventually established while investigative actions proceeded inside the residence.
As the search concluded, armed SBU personnel began attempting to detain several GUR servicemen. Borovsky explained that SBU officers attempted to drag three GUR personnel into a vehicle.
GUR servicemen offered passive resistance by physically holding onto their comrades to prevent them from being pulled away. Borovsky said SBU special forces then began shouting and opened fire toward the ground, at the feet of the servicemen, and directly into their legs.
Wounded personnel and medical condition
The gunfire resulted in three GUR personnel sustaining gunshot injuries. Borovsky provided specific details regarding their medical status during an interview on Radio Svoboda's Svoboda Live program.
One wounded serviceman suffered a severed artery accompanied by severe blood loss. Borovsky noted that a tourniquet was applied promptly at the scene, saving his life, and the officer remains in intensive care at a Kyiv hospital.
A second serviceman sustained a gunshot wound to the leg without significant blood loss. The third injured officer suffered a bullet wound where the round became lodged in the leg bone above the knee.
The State Bureau of Investigation, known as DBR, is Ukraine's independent law enforcement agency responsible for investigating serious crimes committed by law enforcement officers and military personnel. The agency has launched a formal inquiry into the confrontation alongside prosecutors.
Presidential reaction and official investigations
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the confrontation during his national video address on the evening of September 2, describing the clash as an absolutely shameful situation between separate units of the SBU and GUR.
Zelensky stated that he had consulted with Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko regarding the shootout. He announced that prosecutors and DBR investigators would verify all testimony and statements from participants to reconstruct the event step by step.
The president emphasized that there must be strict accountability, including personnel decisions by the heads of both special services regarding those involved, as well as internal departmental investigations.
Zelensky added that firing weapons inside Ukraine is permissible only against Russian occupying forces to defend the country. He stressed that no other shootout would ever be accepted or permitted by the Ukrainian state.
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and former chief of military intelligence, told reporters that a full investigation was required. Budanov said that no one has the right to kidnap servicemen with impunity or open fire on the streets of Ukrainian cities.
Parliamentary committee summons intelligence heads
Fedir Venislavskyi, a Ukrainian member of parliament representing the Servant of the People faction, declared that there were no valid grounds for the use of firearms during the morning clash.
Venislavskyi stated that the events were entirely unacceptable from the standpoint of law, common sense, morality, and ethics. He announced that the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence had summoned the heads of both GUR and the SBU to attend a committee meeting.
The Verkhovna Rada is Ukraine's unicameral parliament, whose national security committee exercises legislative oversight over defense and intelligence institutions. Venislavskyi promised to reveal public details of the case following the committee meeting, provided no official security restrictions are placed on the information.
Tensions between Ukrainian security services have occasionally surfaced during the ongoing war. Past incidents include public scrutiny surrounding the death of GUR employee Denys Kirieiev inside an SBU vehicle and reported disruptions of operations involving Russian Volunteer Corps leadership.
