Shooting between Security Service and Defence Intelligence: Zelenskyy announces personnel changes

Tetyana Oliynyk - 2 September, 20:40

Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photo: Office of the President

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has commented on a shooting between separate Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) units that took place in the city of Kyiv.

Source: Zelenskyy in an evening address

Quote: "Regarding today's absolutely shameful situation between separate SSU and DIU units that took place in Kyiv. We spoke with Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.

The Prosecutor General and the State Bureau of Investigation will establish all the details: all testimony and statements by those involved in this incident will be examined, as will the entire situation step by step. There must be accountability, including personnel changes by the heads of the security services regarding those involved in what happened, as well as internal investigations within both agencies."

Details: Zelenskyy added that people in Ukraine can only shoot at Russian occupiers and that no other exchange of gunfire will ever be regarded as something permitted.

Background:

On 1 September, the Russian Volunteer Corps said that Stepan Kaplunov, Deputy Commander for Combat Operations, had been abducted by unknown individuals in the courtyard of his 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 – ed.]
On the night of 1-2 September, information spread on social media about a shootout allegedly involving DIU and the SSU in Kyiv's Dniprovskyi District, and that it was somehow connected to Kaplunov's disappearance.
Later, State Bureau of Investigation officers and the head of the SSU's Special Operations Centre Alpha arrived at the scene. According to Ukrainska Pravda, three employees of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine were injured as a result of the conflict.
Meanwhile, in the morning, the SSU said that, together with DIU, it had prevented a terrorist attack against one of the leaders of the Russian opposition political national movement, who had arrived in Ukraine.
Kaplunov's lawyer Taras Borovskyi said that the serviceman had been released, but his whereabouts are currently unknown.
On 2 September, Zelenskyy signed a decree dismissing Oleh Khramov, Head of the Department for State Secrets Protection and Licensing at the Security Service of Ukraine.

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