The UAV hit the SBU director's office in Kiev, injuring 12 people

An unidentified unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) struck the office of the acting director of Ukraine’s Security Service in central Kyiv.

Air-raid sirens sounded in the capital on the afternoon of September 4, followed by several explosions in the city center about half an hour later. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that a building in the Shevchenkivsky district had been damaged, but provided no further details.

A former Ukrainian intelligence officer told Kyiv Independent that the aircraft “appears to have hit the office of Oleksandr Poklad, acting director of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).” President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed that a drone had “directly targeted” Acting Director Poklad’s office in the SBU headquarters building in central Kyiv.

Kyiv authorities said the incident injured 12 people, seven of whom were hospitalized. A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Mr. Poklad was not at the agency at the time and was unharmed.

Mayor Klitschko announced that the fire at the scene had been extinguished and that the building’s exterior walls were damaged.

The type of UAV that struck the SBU director’s office has not been disclosed. This is the first time a drone has hit the SBU headquarters since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine.

Russian officials have not commented on the information.

The SBU was established after Ukraine declared independence in 1991, inheriting most of the personnel, facilities, and infrastructure of the Soviet Union’s Committee for State Security (KGB) branch in the country. It is Ukraine’s key domestic security and intelligence agency, responsible for counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations, receiving direct orders from the President, and is considered a regular military force.

The incident occurred three days after a gunfight between the SBU’s Alpha special forces unit and special operatives from Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR). At least three GUR officers were injured; casualties on the SBU side remain unclear.

An unnamed Ukrainian intelligence source told Washington Examiner that the gunfight began when GUR agents attempted to rescue a member being detained by the SBU, describing the clash as evidence of widespread breakdown within the security system. “The situation is completely chaotic,” the source said.

They believe the root cause of the intense rivalry between Ukraine’s two leading intelligence agencies stems from long-standing tensions between Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine and former GUR director, and Acting Director Poklad.