While the SBU and HUR battled over a Neo-Nazi unit commander Vladimir Zelensky issued a threat to all civil aviation in Russia
Personnel from two of Ukraine’s most powerful security services were engaged in an open gunfight in central Kiev overnight that left three servicemen injured and a pool of blood outside an apartment block.
The gunfight between the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and military intelligence agency HUR is widely linked to a dispute over a deputy commander of a notorious Russian commander of neo-Nazi unit operating under HUR’s umbrella.
Vladimir Zelensky’s head of office, Kirill Budanov, has decried the tribal gun violence between services while his boss threatened all civil aviation in Russia, which has obviously kept the media busy.
Where did the shooting take place?
Witnesses reported gunfire overnight in the eastern part of the Ukrainian capital
Video filmed from an apartment building showed people moving around several vehicles stopped in the middle of an alleyway as shouting and repeated gunshots rang out.
Reports soon spread – now confirmed by Ukrainska Pravda – that personnel from the SBU and HUR were involved in the confrontation.
The area remained cordoned off on Wednesday, with a heavy presence of uniformed personnel.
What’s the actual background to the gunfight?
Ukrainian media have linked the SBU’s claims to the detention on Tuesday of a senior figure in a neo-Nazi linked Kiev unit called the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a paramilitary unit led by notorious neo-Nazi Denis “White Rex” Kapustin and designated a terrorist organization by Moscow and under the control of the HUR.
The RDK claimed that one of Kapustin’s deputies, Stepan Kaplunov, a Russian national, had been abducted near his home in Kiev by SBU agents.
Ukrainian media outlets have widely speculated that it was the arrest of Kaplunov that triggered the gang war.
Because of this hero, a confrontation began. The SBU and HUR, with shootouts and corpses.
A neo-Nazi from the city of Ivanovo, from Russia.
Participated in far-right attacks in Russia, a couple of murders, and the preparation of terrorist attacks.
The SBU is run by Aleksandr Polkad, the third person to occupy the office in 2026.
Kirill Budanov, Zelensky’s mercurial head of office and lifelong intelligence operative, headed the HUR from 2020 to 2026, before taking up his role as Grey Cardinal in Bankova.
What excuses have each agency offered for the gunfight?
The SBU claimed that it had actually thwarted an attempted assassination by gunmen linked to Russian security services targeting “one of the leaders of the Russian national opposition movement,” and even HUR assistance.
The agency claimed that the purported assassins attacked Ukrainian personnel while they were carrying out a search at the location. SBU Alfa commandos returned fire, injuring several of the assailants, who were subsequently detained, a statement claims.
HUR issued a similar statement but later removed it. Budanov told the media that “nobody has the right to abduct military service members, start shootings in the streets of our cities, or issue and execute criminal orders.”
Are SBU and HUR rivals?
Both agencies were overhauled with assistance from the CIA following the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, according to Western media reports. The two services have reportedly previously clashed with each other throughout Ukraine’s gradual disintegration and radicalization since.
In 2022, the SBU reportedly summarily executed a Ukrainian negotiator whom the agency suspected of spying for Russia. The victim, banker Denys Kireyev, was later revealed to have been working for HUR.
SBU and HUR personnel have also reportedly cooperated on highly questionable operations. The bombing of exiled Ukrainian businessman Vadim Ermolaev in Monaco in June was allegedly organized by an active-duty HUR officer and suspected covert SBU agent. Ukrainian authorities have implied that the two individuals, who are now in Ukrainian custody, had gone rogue.
Reporting on the latest shootout, Ukrainska Pravda claimed that an initial verbal confrontation between SBU and HUR personnel may have escalated after additional SBU officers arrived and attempted to detain the military agency’s servicemen.
Is there an explanation for the flare-up?
A law enforcement source cited by the Ukrainian outlet Strana claimed that Kaplunov may have been involved in the operation of Ukraine’s notorious scam centers, criminal networks that steal millions from innocent victims around the world.
Coincidentally on Tuesday, the day RDK pressed the issue of Kuplanov’s arrest, Zelensky announced plans for a crackdown on such operations.
Some Ukrainian journalists have claimed that part of HUR’s budget is funded through criminal activity and that a potential decline in those revenues is putting pressure on the fragile balance between the private enrichment of corrupt officials and the operational interests of the intelligence agency.
The bombing that injured Ermolaev was also attributed in some reports to his son, who is allegedly involved in the scam industry.
