{"id":613942,"date":"2026-09-04T06:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613942\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T06:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:18:12","slug":"shootout-in-kyiv-between-ukrainian-spy-services-disgraceful-says-zelenskyy-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613942\/","title":{"rendered":"Shootout in Kyiv between Ukrainian spy services \u2018disgraceful\u2019, says Zelenskyy | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several people have been injured in a shootout in central Kyiv between two branches of Ukraine\u2019s security services, in an incident Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> described as \u201cdisgraceful\u201d.<\/p>\n

The shootout, which took place on Wednesday morning in a downtown area of the capital, was between officers from the domestic security service, the SBU, and the military intelligence directorate, the HUR.<\/p>\n

The SBU said in a statement on Thursday that the shootout \u201cdefinitely shouldn\u2019t have happened\u201d and that it was assisting state investigators.<\/p>\n

The clash appears to have been sparked by the SBU\u2019s recent arrest of a Russian man fighting for Ukraine<\/a> under the supervision of the HUR. 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.<\/p>\n

The SBU said that, together with the HUR, it had foiled a Russian-backed terrorist plot targeting a Russian opposition leader who had recently arrived in Ukraine. In a separate statement, the SBU said its officers had come under armed attack while conducting an investigation and they had used their weapons in response.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the SBU released a video<\/a> of the Russian national fighting for Ukraine who had been arrested last month. In the video, the man says he was contacted by a person from Russia acting for Moscow\u2019s intelligence agency who wanted to recruit him to assassinate Ukrainian defence personnel and other individuals. The man\u2019s lawyer told local media that the video had been recorded under pressure and was being released to \u201cwhitewash\u201d the shootout. The man has since been released from SBU custody.<\/p>\n

Hours after the shootout, Zelenskyy fired the SBU\u2019s head of the department for the protection of state secrets, Oleh Khramov.<\/p>\n

\u201cShooting here in Ukraine is permitted only at Russian occupiers, in defence of Ukraine. Our state will never regard any other shootout as acceptable,\u201d Zelenskyy wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n

The incident comes at a delicate moment for Zelenskyy. He has recently faced down calls from a sacked defence minister to hold wartime elections<\/a>. The demand, from Mykhailo Fedorov \u2013 whose dismissal triggered a wave of protests \u2013 was the biggest challenge to Zelenskyy\u2019s authority from inside Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy also recently sacked a presidential deputy chief of staff<\/a> amid reports she was being investigated in connection to an alleged money-laundering scheme.<\/p>\n

The president said the shooting on Wednesday needed to be investigated by both the SBU and the HUR. Ukraine\u2019s main investigative agency has also opened an investigation.<\/p>\n

In a separate incident, a 71-year-old man was shot outside a medical clinic on Thursday morning in Kyiv<\/a> and remains in a \u201cserious condition\u201d, according to the the Kyiv city prosecutor\u2019s office. An investigation has been launched into an attempted murder.<\/p>\n

The shootings come as Kyiv withstands an intense period of Russian bombardment<\/a>. Air raid alerts have been active for extended periods in the daytime as well as overnight in the capital. Across the country, at least five people were killed in strikes on Wednesday night. Ukraine is facing a critical shortage of US-made \u200bPatriot interceptors capable \u2060of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has also increased its use of long-range drones to target deep into Russian territory. This week Zelenskyy said<\/a> that Russian airspace was becoming unsafe for commercial airlines because of the growing number of drone attacks.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Russian media reported that the military officer who ordered a missile strike on the Okhmatdyt children\u2019s hospital in Kyiv <\/a>in July 2024 had been shot. Maj Gen Nikolai Varpakhovich was reportedly shot twice by an assailant riding a motorbike and wearing a helmet. The officer remains in a critical condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several people have been injured in a shootout in central Kyiv between two branches of Ukraine\u2019s security services,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-613942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}