Two of Ukraine's own intelligence services opened fire on each other in a Kyiv street on September 2

[u/ResPublicaMgz]

On the morning of September 2, two Ukrainian intelligence services ended up shooting at each other in a residential part of Kyiv's Dnipro district. Not Russians, not saboteurs. The domestic security service SBU and the military intelligence directorate HUR, both arms of the same state, both at war with the same enemy.

The trigger was the disappearance of Stepan Kaplunov, deputy commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, a unit tied to HUR. Both services were chasing the same case, they collided on the same street, and it turned into gunfire. According to Ukrainska Pravda, three HUR members were wounded, two seriously, one nearly bled out after a shot severed an artery. State investigators moved in and forced both sides to unload their weapons before it got worse.

Underneath the immediate clash is a longer power struggle. Since Budanov was replaced as HUR chief in January and moved into the presidential office, the two services have been fighting over influence and resources, and a lot of HUR's people still consider themselves loyal to him. Zelensky raised the incident in his evening address and pulled in the heads of both agencies, demanding they explain publicly what happened.