A shootout occurred in Kyiv between employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (GUR), confirmed President Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo: Felipe Dana/AP/picture alliance Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the shootout "between certain units" of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the country (GUR) in Kyiv on Wednesday, September 2. In a statement on Telegram, the head of state called the incident "an absolutely disgraceful situation." "We spoke with Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. The Prosecutor General and the State Bureau of Investigations will clarify all the details: all testimonies and statements from the participants in this story will be checked, the entire situation step by step," Zelensky said. The President of Ukraine promised to hold those responsible accountable, to make "including personnel decisions," and to conduct "internal investigations in both services." Soon, a decree on the dismissal of Oleg Kramov - the head of the Department of State Secret Protection and Licensing of the SBU - appeared on the president's website. ## ## Shootout between SBU and GUR in Kyiv On the morning of September 2, Ukrainian media reported a shootout between employees of the SBU and GUR in the Dnipro district of Kyiv. The first service reported an armed attack on its operatives during searches as part of an investigation into a terrorist act that, according to reports, the Russian FSB was trying to organize against "one of the leaders of the Russian opposition political national movement." As a result, some "individuals who resisted" were injured, and the attackers were detained, the SBU noted. They added that during the initial investigative actions, it was established that the detainees belonged to "one of the units" of the Ukrainian army. According to unconfirmed reports, this concerns an assassination attempt on the commander of the combat unit of the GUR "Russian Volunteer Corps" (RDK) Stepan Kaplunov, who arrived in Kyiv for Ukraine's Independence Day and disappeared on September 1. "A few days ago, the deputy commander of the RDK for combat operations, Stepan Kaplunov, was kidnapped by unknown individuals in the courtyard of his own home," the RDK's Telegram channel stated, signed by the name of the unit's chief of staff, Alexander Fortuna. He stated that after Kaplunov's disappearance, RDK representatives contacted the GUR, SBU, and the State Bureau of Investigations of Ukraine. ## ## GUR representative: SBU employees kidnapped the commander Late in the evening of September 2, the RDK published an "official statement" from the commander of the special unit "Timur" - GUR special forces. "The combat commander of one of the GUR units was kidnapped. He was kidnapped in broad daylight. He was kidnapped by employees of the Security Service of Ukraine. He was detained without official charges," he wrote. According to the commander of "Timur," after reaching agreements with the SBU regarding the continuation of all procedural actions in accordance with current legislation, some service employees "began detaining GUR employees and opened fire without warning on unarmed GUR employees." ## ## Lawyer: Kaplunov was released, the assassination attempt could have been fabricated According to Kaplunov's lawyer Taras Borovsky, his client was "already free" on the afternoon of September 2. The lawyer does not know where he is now and believes that the SBU's version of preventing an assassination attempt on Kaplunov could have been fabricated. "The press service of the SBU wants, as far as I understand, to cover up the extrajudicial detention and violation of all norms of the criminal procedural code committed by their employees... But we have come to terms with the fact that such a version for society may be good, and in the future, we will not inflate any wave of information," Borovsky's words are quoted by the agency "RBK-Ukraine."
