Ukrainian intel agencies in Kyiv firefight: What happened and why?

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that a gunfight in Kyiv between Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) and the State Security Service (SBU) wounded at least three security officials and exposed tensions inside the country’s security apparatus. The confrontation took place on Wednesday in the capital’s Dniprovskyi district and followed the detention of Stepan Kaplunov, a deputy commander in the Russian Volunteer Corps, a formation that fights alongside Ukraine and is linked to HUR.

According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, SBU officers were acting on orders related to an alleged Russian plot, while local media and other officials described the armed clash as involving HUR personnel. Both sides offered sharply different accounts of what happened, including claims that the other agency initiated the violence. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the episode “absolutely disgraceful” and demanded accountability, internal reviews and personnel consequences. He also later removed an SBU official responsible for protecting state secrets.

The case matters because it comes amid a broader shakeup in Ukraine’s security leadership during the war with Russia. Al Jazeera notes that recent personnel changes in Kyiv have aimed to tighten coordination across intelligence, military and law-enforcement bodies, even as anti-corruption scrutiny and institutional rivalries continue to pressure the government. The report frames the firefight as a rare public sign of friction between agencies that are central to Ukraine’s wartime defense and internal security.