Shootout between Ukrainian special services in Kyiv: three wounded, political scandal

Author, Svyatoslav Khomenko Place of work, BBC

Published 2 hours ago

Reading time: 11 min

A shootout between employees of two elite Ukrainian special services right in the courtyard of a residential area of Kyiv, as a result of which three soldiers of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine were injured, has become the number one topic of the Ukrainian media over the past few days.

President Vladimir Zelensky first “attacked” the heads of the special services for not explaining themselves for the actions of their fighters to a society that was in shock that friendly-on-friendly shooting had also been added to the continuous Russian shelling that had been going on for the last week. Then he said that the heads of the GUR and SBU involved in this incident “will be assessed based on the results of the official investigation.”

However, behind the shooting in the middle of a Kyiv residential area there may be much larger consequences for Ukrainian politics and the security sector.

The BBC has compiled a timeline of events surrounding the incident and early estimates of how it could turn out.

Characters and context

The central figure in this story is Stepan Kaplunov, deputy commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) for combat work (the unit fights on the side of Ukraine, is recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia and is banned).

Kaplunov has been fighting as part of Ukrainian combat units since 2014, and in 2022 he joined the RDK, which was created at the same time.

At the beginning of the great war, the RDK united Russian volunteers with predominantly far-right political views and, as its commander Denis Kapustin admits in an interview, “ambiguous biographies.”

In the fall of 2022, it was the then head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, General Kirill Budanov, who approved the decision to “merge” the RDK into the Main Intelligence Directorate - the same Kapustin claims that Budanov’s adventurous character and his willingness to take risks played an important role in this decision.

Structurally, the RDK is part of the “Timur Special Forces” - a special forces unit in the structure of military intelligence, which includes, in particular, a number of smaller formations like the RDK.

Data on the number and internal structure of Timur’s Special Units are not disclosed. His commander, a combat officer (in 2023, he gave an interview to Le Monde with the rank of lieutenant colonel) with the call sign “Timur,” is considered one of Budanov’s closest associates, even after the former head of the Main Intelligence Directorate went to work in the President’s Office.

On the other hand, the protagonist of this story is the Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s largest intelligence service. Its acting head is General Alexander Poklad.

Ukrainian and Western media have repeatedly written about the hostile personal relations between the generals and heroes of Ukraine Poklad and Budanov.

They are believed to have their origins in the events of March 2022, when banker Denis Kireev, a member of a Ukrainian group that was conducting peace negotiations with the Russians, was found shot dead in the center of Kyiv. The circumstances of his death are still shrouded in mystery, but it is known that literally an hour and a half before his death, he was put into his minibus by SBU officers.

The Security Service then announced the liquidation of the Russian agent, but the head of the GUR, Kirill Budanov, said that Kireev was an agent of Ukrainian intelligence who provided valuable information about Russia’s preparations for the invasion.

The media reported that Budanov considered the then head of counterintelligence of the SBU Poklad responsible for that incident. And, according to the publication Ukrayinska Pravda, Budanov, who now heads the office of the President of Ukraine, is strongly opposed to the candidacy of Poklad for the post of full-fledged head of the SBU.

August 23: the beginning of the story

Stepan Kaplunov's version: Near the entrance of his house, unknown people in plain clothes, introducing themselves as police officers, drag him into a black BMW. Then they load him into two other cars and, handcuffed and blindfolded, bring him to “some kind of security facility, one might say, a secret prison.”

Until September 1: where is Kaplunov?

RDK version: After Kaplunov failed to show up for several meetings scheduled for August 23, his colleagues begin a search. They contact the police, SBU, GUR, State Bureau of Investigation, and the Ombudsman. They even go to the SBU pre-trial detention center in the center of Kyiv. Everywhere they get the answer: we don’t have it.

On the morning of September 1, the chief of staff of the RDK, Alexander Fortuna, reported the disappearance of Kaplunov on the RDK telegram channel.

Kaplunov’s version: In the “secret prison” he was “put in a cell, handcuffed and chained.” Throughout this time his eyes were closed. There he realizes that he is in the hands of SBU officers.

For the first two days, he is “intensively interrogated.” The goal, says Kaplunov, is to obtain information that would discredit “Timur’s Special Unit” and “Timur” himself. “I was charged with having communications with the FSB,” says Kaplunov.

He admits: the kidnappers did not beat him or torture him, but they hinted that he might “disappear completely,” and they heard “some words about digging a hole.”

“Being in an unenviable position, I completely agreed with their version that I had communication with the FSB... Although this was absolutely not the case - this (confession) was due to my position and under psychological pressure,” Kaplunov said.

After three days in the “secret prison,” the interrogations stop: “I was just in this room.” Soon he was transported to another room, and on September 1 he was unexpectedly ordered: “Get out.”

SBU version: The Security Service of Ukraine promptly received information that the FSB had planned the murder of “one of the leaders of the Russian opposition political national movement.”

The SBU does not name this figure, but later the publications “Babel” and “Suspilne”, citing their sources, reported that we could be talking about the head of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in exile, Akhmed Zakayev.

Be that as it may, the SBU reports that it exposed the contacts of the deputy commander of the RDK with the Russian special services: he was supposed to kill not only the Russian oppositionist, but also “liquidate other servicemen of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in exchange for a monetary reward.”

“At the same time, this person admitted the fact of contacts with the FSB of the Russian Federation and provided the SBU with the relevant information,” the SBU message reads.

To prove its claims, the intelligence service published screenshots of some correspondence. In it, one interlocutor offers to another “in Ukraine, someone can pay two hundred from $50k per person,” and then specifies: orders can arrive once a week, “up to $300k.” “Norm price,” another participant in the correspondence answers him.

The SBU also posted a 14-second video in which Stepan Kaplunov, wearing black glasses, tells the camera that “a person from the territory of the Russian Federation” came to him “with the goal of recruiting me to carry out active actions to eliminate soldiers of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and other persons.”

September 1, around 23:00: Confrontation begins

SBU version: As part of the investigation, it was decided to carry out “urgent investigative actions to collect and record evidence” in this case.

One of the places where searches were planned was Kaplunov’s Kiev apartment. SBU officers, together with Kaplunov, went to Shumsky Street, in the Kiev residential area of ​​Bereznyaki on the left bank of the Dnieper.

RDK's version: It is not entirely clear whether Kaplunov lived in this apartment with his comrades, or RDK decided to leave “duty officers” there just in case (both versions are heard in the media), but in any case, when the SBU officers arrived at the scene, the RDK fighters there blocked the door for some time and called for help.

GUR soldiers began to approach the house on Shumsky Street - mostly, as far as one can judge from the video recordings of those events, in civilian clothes.

Comment: It was then that the first shots were fired.

Kaplunov’s lawyer Taras Borovsky, in a conversation with Radio Liberty (in Russia, all structures of this media are included in the register of “foreign agents”), questions the words of the SBU about the need to conduct an urgent search in his client’s apartment.

According to him, according to Ukrainian procedural legislation, in exceptional cases an urgent search can be carried out, for which the sanction of a judge is not required. In this case, says Borovsky, Kaplunov was in the hands of the SBU for a week and a half without any suspicion being brought against him, and there can be no talk of any urgency.

At the same time, the former deputy head of the SBU, General Viktor Yagun, stated on the same broadcast that Kaplunov’s comrades could challenge the legality of the search later, but they had no right to obstruct SBU officers on duty.

Night of September 2

Several dozen young people in civilian clothes appear in the courtyard of a high-rise building on Shumsky Street. They block exits from the yard and engage in more or less tense dialogues with SBU special forces in balaclavas. Among those present is the commander of the RDK Denis Kapustin, the commander of the “Timur Special Unit” “Timur”. According to some reports, the commander of the Alpha special unit of the Security Service of Ukraine is also arriving there.

SBU soldiers are at the scene in full combat uniform, GUR soldiers claim that they only had award pistols with them. At some point, light armored vehicles are spotted there: according to some sources, they were driven there by the SBU, according to others, both sides.

As a result of the dialogue between senior officers, an agreement was reached to conduct a search in Kaplunov’s apartment. The RDK commander Denis Kapustin is present at it: he will later state that no suspicious things were found there.

SBU officers hand Kaplunov over to his RDK comrades. Now he is in an unnamed place under the protection of the State Intelligence Service.

September 2, 08:00: Joint statement

A laconic joint statement appears on the social networks of the SBU and the Main Intelligence Directorate: “The SBU, together with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the MOU, prevented a terrorist attack that the FSB of the Russian Federation was preparing against one of the leaders of the Russian opposition political national movement, who arrived in Ukraine on the occasion of the Independence Day of our state. Operational and investigative actions are being carried out.”

Representatives of the RDC claim that at that time the incident seemed to be over, and they began to disperse.

Of the three dozen fighters present at night, only eight to ten people remained near Kaplunov’s house. That's when something went wrong.

September 2, around 08:40: Shootout

Machine gun fire can be heard in the courtyard of a high-rise building on Shumsky Street. The video published on the Internet shows the moment the shooting began, from which it is difficult to draw any clear conclusions.

As a result of the shooting, three GUR soldiers were wounded; one of them had a bullet pierce an artery; he was reported to be in serious but stable condition.

In any case, immediately after this, the text of the joint statement with the SBU, published literally an hour earlier, disappears from the GUR’s social networks. You can still read it on the pages of the SBU.

RDK version: Stepan Kaplunov’s lawyer Taras Borovsky claims that after the situation seemed to have defused, some representatives of the SBU suddenly tried to drag three GUR soldiers who were on the scene into their car.

“The GUR servicemen began to hold their brothers-in-arms so that they would not be dragged away, offering such rather passive resistance to the SBU special forces. After that, the SBU special forces began to open fire, scream, shoot at the feet, at the ground, shoot at the legs,” he says.

RDK commander Denis Kapustin emphasizes that this is not about a shootout, but about shooting, since, according to him, his fighters did not open fire. “They (SBU officers) did not shoot to kill, it is important to note right away... It was still more random than targeted.”

SBU version: The intelligence service stated that “during the search, a group of individuals carried out an armed attack on the SBU operational investigation group.”

To stop the attack, law enforcement officers used weapons, the attackers were detained, the message stated. It was later established that the detainees “belong to one of the units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces,” the SBU said.

September 2: Zelensky’s “attack”

The news about the shootout in the middle of a Kyiv residential area - the events actually took place against the backdrop of children's sandboxes, and dozens of residents of the Ukrainian capital could film them without leaving their own apartments - became a sensation on social networks, and was reported by Ukrainian and foreign media.

The official investigation into these events was entrusted to the Office of the Prosecutor General and the State Bureau of Investigation.

On the afternoon of September 2, Advisor to the President of Ukraine Dmitry Lytvyn told reporters that Vladimir Zelensky “ran into” the heads of the relevant structures with a demand to provide the public with information about what happened.

Already at that moment it was clear that their interpretations would be radically different.

A press release has already been published on the website of the Office of the Prosecutor General, repeating the version of events set out on the SBU’s social networks: they say that some armed people attacked SBU operatives, then it turned out that they “belong to one of the units of the Defense Forces.”

And the head of the President’s Office and former head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kirill Budanov, voiced his attitude to the situation in a commentary to RBC-Ukraine: “The situation is already being dealt with by the SBI and the UCP [Office of the Prosecutor General – Ed.], it is important to ensure a thorough and unbiased investigation, but no one has the right to kidnap military personnel with impunity, open fire on the streets of our cities, give and carry out criminal orders.”

In this statement it was difficult not to see a stone thrown at the SBU. A number of commentators were critical of Budanov’s words: they say that the president’s right hand should have remained “above the fray” in this confrontation.

Once again, Vladimir Zelensky addressed this situation in his evening address on September 2: he called it “absolutely shameful” and stated that “it is possible to shoot here in Ukraine only at Russian occupiers to protect Ukraine.”

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said that at the moment, reports of suspicion have been brought against two participants in the events: an SBU officer is suspected of exceeding official powers, and a GUR soldier is suspected of encroaching on the life of a law enforcement officer.

September 3: War of Interpretations

“Timur” made a rare public statement in defense of Kaplunov.

The plot of the events as they presented it was as clear as possible: Kaplunov became a victim of arbitrariness, he is not accused of anything, because otherwise the SBU simply would not have released him.

Literally a few hours later, the RDK telegram channel posted a fresh statement from Stepan Kaplunov. Standing against the backdrop of a brick wall, he spoke about previously unheard details of his stay in the “secret prison”: “According to our information, for the first three days General Poklad worked directly with me. Through physical and psychological pressure, with my help, they tried to discredit...”

End of story

BBC Editorial