A shootout in central Kyiv involving two branches of Ukraine's security apparatus left several people injured and triggered a rare public rebuke from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to The Guardian, the clash took place on Wednesday morning in a downtown area of the capital and involved officers from the domestic security service, the SBU, and the military intelligence directorate, the HUR. The incident appears to have begun after the SBU arrested a Russian man fighting for Ukraine under HUR supervision. Local media reported that, while the SBU was searching an apartment linked to the investigation, HUR officers arrived and shots were fired.
Three HUR officers were injured in the exchange, the report said. The SBU later said the clash should not have happened and that it was assisting state investigators. In separate statements, the agency also said it and the HUR had foiled a Russian-backed terrorist plot targeting a Russian opposition figure who had recently arrived in Ukraine. The HUR, for its part, said officers had come under armed attack while conducting an investigation and had fired back.
The dispute spilled quickly into the political arena. Zelenskyy described the shootout as disgraceful and later fired the SBU official responsible for the department for the protection of state secrets. He also said that shooting in Ukraine is acceptable only against Russian occupiers in defense of the country. That language made clear how sensitive the incident is at a time when Ukraine is already under pressure from war, internal security operations and public scrutiny over the conduct of its agencies.
The arrested Russian national has since been released from SBU custody. On Thursday, the SBU released a video of him saying he had been contacted by a person acting for Moscow's intelligence service and asked to assassinate Ukrainian defense personnel and other individuals. His lawyer told local media the recording had been made under pressure and was being used to whitewash the shootout. The competing versions leave key questions unresolved, especially about who initiated the confrontation and what role the arrested man actually played.
The episode also arrives during a difficult stretch for Zelenskyy's government. The Guardian reported that he has recently faced criticism from a sacked defense minister over wartime elections, and that he has also removed a presidential deputy chief of staff amid reports of a money-laundering investigation. Against that backdrop, a public firefight between two powerful security services is politically awkward as well as operationally alarming.
The day was not limited to one violent incident. A 71-year-old man was shot outside a medical clinic in Kyiv on Thursday morning and remained in serious condition, according to the city prosecutor's office. Separately, Ukraine continued to endure heavy Russian bombardment, with air raid alerts active for extended periods and at least five people killed across the country in strikes on Wednesday night.
The Kyiv shootout now sits at the intersection of battlefield pressure, intelligence rivalry and domestic political strain. For Zelenskyy, the immediate priority appears to be restoring discipline inside the security services before the episode turns into a wider crisis of trust.
