A firefight erupted in downtown Kyiv on Wednesday morning between officers of the SBU, Ukraine’s domestic security service, and the HUR, the military intelligence directorate, leaving multiple people injured. The clash was sparked by the SBU’s arrest of a Russian national who had been fighting for Ukraine under HUR supervision, according to local media reports. The confrontation occurred as SBU officers were conducting a search related to an investigation when HUR personnel arrived and gunfire was exchanged, resulting in three HUR officers being wounded.
Both services provided statements regarding the incident. The SBU described the shootout as something that “definitely shouldn’t have happened” and said it was cooperating with state investigators. The security service claimed its officers came under armed fire while investigating an alleged Russian-backed terrorist plot targeting a Russian opposition figure who had recently arrived in Ukraine. The HUR and SBU jointly announced they had disrupted this purported plot. Later, the SBU released a video of the arrested Russian national alleging he had been approached by a Moscow intelligence operative to carry out assassinations of Ukrainian defense personnel, though the man’s lawyer suggested the recording was made under duress.
President Zelenskyy responded swiftly to the incident, describing it as unacceptable and firing Oleh Khramov, the head of the SBU’s department for state secrets protection. In a social media statement, Zelenskyy declared that shooting within Ukraine should only occur in defense against Russian occupiers. Ukraine’s main investigative agency opened a formal inquiry into the shootout. The incident occurred amid ongoing political tensions, including recent dismissals of a defense minister and a presidential deputy chief of staff, and as Kyiv faces sustained Russian bombardment with air raid alerts occurring regularly throughout day and night hours.
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