3 HUR fighters wounded in Kyiv shootout, 1 seriously, RDK deputy commander says

According to him, no prohibited items were found during the search of the apartment. He said that when he, SBU officers and an investigator arrived, “security was already inside the apartment.”

“In other words, our unit [Tymur’s special unit within HUR of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry] was providing security for the premises so that during the search there would under no circumstances be any incidents — let’s say, so that nothing could be brought in or planted, and so that everything would be carried out as cleanly as possible,” Kaplunov said.

He said he remained inside the apartment the entire time and heard the exchange of gunfire from there while it was taking place outside.

“So, let’s say, the high-profile events everyone could follow in Telegram channels and news feeds — I heard them through the window,” said Kaplunov. “I heard that some kind of shooting was happening. What exactly was happening, I cannot know.”

Asked whether he knew the condition of HUR fighters who were wounded in the shooting, including personnel from Tymur’s unit, Kaplunov replied:

“At the moment I only have information that our unit has three wounded. One of them is in serious condition — as far as I know, he had an artery pierced, but his life was saved. His condition is stable.”

Kaplunov also said information about the detention of the shooters who, in his words, “fired at unarmed people and therefore were effectively committing unlawful acts,” remained “contradictory.”

“But I cannot comment on that; I definitely cannot say whether any of them were detained or not,” he added.

The Sept. 2 shooting in Kyiv

Overnight into Sept. 2 and that morning, reports began circulating online of a shooting in Kyiv's Berezniaky residential microdistrict. The Kyiv City State Administration reported that Yuriia Shumskoho Street had been closed to traffic. Reports indicated a clash had broken out in Kyiv between officers of the SBU Security Service and the Defense Intelligence (HUR).

The SBU subsequently announced it had thwarted an assassination attempt against a leader of Russia's opposition movement who had arrived in Kyiv for Ukraine's Independence Day.

That announcement came after Aleksandr Fortuna, chief of staff of the Russian Volunteer Corps, said on Sept. 1 that the corps' deputy commander for combat operations, Stepan Kaplunov, had been abducted in Kyiv. It later emerged that the shooting in Kyiv occurred during a search of Kaplunov's apartment in the Berezniaky microdistrict.

On Sept. 3, the SBU claimed that Kaplunov was planning an assassination attempt on a Russian opposition figure in Ukraine at the behest of the FSB. According to the SBU, Kaplunov admitted to having contacts with the FSB and had previously been tasked with eliminating other servicemen of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in exchange for monetary compensation. The SBU released screenshots of correspondence allegedly retrieved from Kaplunov’s phone.

At the same time, the deputy commander of the RDK himself denies collaborating with Russian intelligence agencies. He stated that after his arrest, he was indeed interrogated about his contacts with the FSB, but that he confessed to such communications under “psychological pressure.”

Kaplunov’s attorney stated that his client is already free. Kaplunov confirmed that, following the shooting incident, his client was taken away by fighters from HUR’s Tymur unit, and is currently in “a secure, safe location under the protection of our fighters, our special forces unit.”

In addition, on Sept. 3, the deputy commander of the RDK publicly put forward a version of events according to which Ukraine’s Security Service had attempted to discredit the Tymur special unit, as well as the former spymaster and current head of the Office of the President, Kyrylo Budanov.

Budanov responded to the shooting involving security personnel, calling for a "thorough and impartial" investigation and saying Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Prosecutor General's Office were already handling the matter.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the incident shameful and said the heads of the security services should make personnel decisions regarding those involved in the shooting, adding that internal investigations should be carried out within both agencies.

The commander of HUR's special unit Tymur, which includes the RDK, told Radio Liberty that SBU officers had "abducted [the unit's] combat commander in broad daylight" and held him without filing formal charges.

The SBU offered a starkly different account of events. The agency said it had been carrying out urgent investigative actions in a case involving a terrorist attack organized by Russian security services. According to the SBU, a group of individuals carried out an armed attack on its investigative team, attempted to obstruct the investigation, and blocked the road with vehicles.