Zelenskyy dismisses head of Security Service of Ukraine department responsible for state secrets protection

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree dismissing Oleh Khramov as head of the Department for the Protection of State Secrets and Licensing of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) on 2 September.

Source: decree published on the website of the Office of the President

Quote: "Oleh Vitaliiovych Khramov shall be dismissed from the position of head of the Department for the Protection of State Secrets and Licensing of the Security Service of Ukraine."

Background:

• On 1 September, the Russian Volunteer Corps said that its deputy commander for combat operations, Stepan Kaplunov, had been abducted by unknown individuals in the courtyard of a residential building. [The Russian Volunteer Corps is a military and political organisation established in 2022 that consists of Russian volunteers who have been fighting for Ukraine since 2014]
• On the morning of 2 September, reports spread on social media about a shootout said to be between Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) and the SSU in Kyiv's Dniprovskyi District, and that it was somehow connected to Kaplunov's disappearance.
• Later, officers from the State Bureau of Investigation and the head of the SSU's Special Operations Centre Alpha arrived at the scene. According to Ukrainska Pravda sources, three DIU officers were injured in the confrontation.
• Meanwhile, the SSU said that same morning that, together with DIU, it had foiled a terrorist attack against a leader of a Russian opposition political national movement who had arrived in Ukraine.

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