Zelensky blasts rival Ukrainian spy agencies for gunfight with each other during mission to foil Russian terrorist plot

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the country’s two top spy agencies for shooting at each other on the streets of Kyiv while a Russian terrorist plot was being foiled.

Members of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) clashed with Defence Intelligence Unit agents in a courtyard in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday before shots were fired, injuring three officers, Pravda reported.

Zelensky was left horrified over the shooting, branding the scenes “absolutely disgraceful.”

“There must be accountability—including personnel decisions by the heads of the security services regarding the individuals involved—and internal investigations must be conducted within both agencies,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. 

“Here in Ukraine, the only permissible use of firearms is against Russian occupiers in defense of the country. Our state will never tolerate any other kind of shootout as something permissible.”

The SBU claimed its officers came under an “armed attack” while trying to foil a “terrorist act orchestrated by the Russian FSB [Federal Security Service].”

“They attempted to obstruct the investigative actions and used vehicles to block the law enforcement officers’ path.”

SBU agents later learned the attackers belonged to “one of the units of the defense forces of Ukraine” and weapons and documents were seized.  

A DIU agent suffered a severed artery after being shot in the leg. A second officer was seriously injured while a third suffered a less serious injury. 

The SBU claimed the ambush happened while they were foiling a plot to kill Stepan Kaplunov, the deputy commander of the anti-Kremlin Russian Volunteer Corps. 

The RVC claimed on Tuesday that Kaplunov had been abducted by a group of “unknown individuals” from his courtyard, chief of staff Aleksandr Fortuna told Pravda.

Taras Borovskyi, Kaplunov’s lawyer, has dismissed the SBU’s narrative that it was trying to foil a Russian terrorist plot, branding it a “PR stunt.”

He repeated the claims that Russian-born Kaplunov had been snatched. Borovskyi also said that he had been released but didn’t know his whereabouts.

Kaplunov, who previously served in the Russian army and was deployed in Syria, has been fighting for Ukraine since 2014 and served in the Azov Brigade between 2014-16 following Russia’s invasion of Crimea, Ukrainian outlet Pryamiy reported.

He joined volunteer defense forces following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and was seriously injured in clashes with troops in Irpin and Bucha regions.

Kaplunov is on Russia’s terrorist and extremist register. 

Zelensky has since fired Oleh Khramov – a SBU official who spearheaded Ukraine’s Department for the Protection of State Secrets since March 2023. It’s not clear if there’s any link between the shootout and the dismissal.

The post Zelensky blasts rival Ukrainian spy agencies for gunfight with each other during mission to foil Russian terrorist plot appeared first on New York Post.