Overview
- Security Service (SBU) officers and Defence Ministry military intelligence (HUR) clashed outside Kaplunov’s Kyiv apartment in a standoff that turned into gunfire on Wednesday, with the SBU acknowledging it opened fire and HUR reporting three of its personnel wounded, one critically.
- The incident began after the SBU detained Stepan Kaplunov, accused him of plotting a Moscow-linked assassination and said he confessed; Kaplunov later retracted the confession and said he had been seized, blindfolded and forced to sign a statement.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the exchange, ordered a prosecutor-general investigation and an internal review of both agencies, dismissed SBU official Oleh Khramov and authorities issued notices of suspicion to two servicemen.
- HUR has accused a targeted disinformation campaign and called the detention illegal, while the SBU says it acted to prevent an attack on Russian anti-Kremlin activists, leaving the two agencies in a contested public narrative.
- The episode highlights long-standing interagency tensions that could weaken battlefield coordination and public trust in wartime security, and investigators’ findings could lead to prosecutions, leadership assessments or policy changes to prevent a recurrence.