BELIEVE IT OR NOT, AUTHORITIES SAY UKRAINE’S TWO TOP SPY AGENCIES SHOT AT EACH OTHER ON THE STREETS OF KYIV WHILE AN ALLEGED RUSSIAN TERRORIST PLOT WAS BEING FOILED… AND THREE OFFICERS ARE INJURED WHILE PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY DEMANDS INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS AND PERSONNEL DECISIONS.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the country’s two top spy agencies after their agents engaged in a gunfight with each other on the streets of Kyiv.
The armed clash took place in the capital while an operation to foil an alleged Russian terrorist plot was underway.
According to a report from Pravda, members of Ukraine’s Security Service clashed directly with agents from the country’s Defence Intelligence Unit.
The encounter unfolded in a courtyard in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday.
Shots were fired between the two rival intelligence bodies.
Three officers were injured during the exchange of gunfire.
Zelensky was left horrified over the shooting.
He branded the scenes “absolutely disgraceful.”
The president addressed the confrontation on his Telegram channel.
“There must be accountability—including personnel decisions by the heads of the security services regarding the individuals involved—and internal investigations must be conducted within both agencies,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
He underscored that weapons should only ever be turned outward toward invading forces.
“Here in Ukraine, the only permissible use of firearms is against Russian occupiers in defense of the country,” Zelensky wrote.
“Our state will never tolerate any other kind of shootout as something permissible,” he added.
Ukraine’s Security Service, known as the SBU, claimed its officers had come under an “armed attack.”
The agency stated that its personnel were targeted while actively attempting to foil a “terrorist act orchestrated by the Russian FSB [Federal Security Service].”
The SBU alleged that the opposing force deliberately interfered with the mission.
“They attempted to obstruct the investigative actions and used vehicles to block the law enforcement officers’ path,” the SBU said.
But SBU agents later learned the attackers belonged to “one of the units of the defense forces of Ukraine.”
Weapons and documents were seized from the scene following the confrontation.
The physical toll of the courtyard gunfight was severe.
A Defence Intelligence Unit agent suffered a severed artery after being shot in the leg.
A second officer was seriously injured in the incident.
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A third officer suffered a less serious injury.
The SBU claimed the ambush happened while its agents were actively intervening to protect an anti-Kremlin fighter.
The agency stated that its officers were foiling a plot to kill Stepan Kaplunov.
Kaplunov serves as the deputy commander of the anti-Kremlin Russian Volunteer Corps.
The Russian Volunteer Corps claimed on Tuesday that Kaplunov had been abducted.
Aleksandr Fortuna, chief of staff of the Russian Volunteer Corps, told Pravda that Kaplunov had been taken from his courtyard.
Fortuna told the outlet that the abduction had been carried out by a group of “unknown individuals.”
Kaplunov previously served in the Russian army, Ukrainian outlet Pryamiy reported.
During his service in the Russian military, he was deployed in Syria.
He has been fighting for Ukraine since 2014.
Following Russia’s invasion of Crimea, Kaplunov served in the Azov Brigade between 2014 and 2016, Pryamiy reported.
He joined volunteer defense forces following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Kaplunov was seriously injured in clashes with troops in the Irpin and Bucha regions.
Kaplunov is officially listed on Russia’s terrorist and extremist register.
Yet Kaplunov’s legal representation directly challenged the SBU’s explanation of the shootout.
Taras Borovskyi, Kaplunov’s lawyer, dismissed the SBU’s narrative that it was trying to foil a Russian terrorist plot.
Borovskyi branded the agency’s narrative a “PR stunt.”
He repeated the claims that the Russian-born Kaplunov had been snatched.
Borovskyi also stated that Kaplunov had been released.
But the attorney said he did not know his client’s whereabouts.
Zelensky has since fired Oleh Khramov.
Khramov was an SBU official who spearheaded Ukraine’s Department for the Protection of State Secrets since March 2023.
And it is not clear if there is any link between the shootout and the dismissal.
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