RDK deputy commander describes secret detention amid SBU-HUR standoff

Kaplunov said he was abducted on Aug. 23 by unidentified individuals who identified themselves as police officers, near the building where he lived.

"They knocked me to the ground and put handcuffs on me," the RDK deputy commander said. “I understand, more or less, how investigative procedures and detentions normally work — a person is immediately charged under specific legal articles. But here, they simply shoved me into a black BMW. To put it bluntly, this was a straightforward abduction. No paperwork, no charges were presented — they put me in a black car and drove off.”

According to Kaplunov, he was later transferred between vehicles two more times — first into a bus, then into an SUV.

"After that, I was taken — already in handcuffs and with my eyes taped shut — to what I believe was most likely some kind of restricted facility, or what you might call a secret prison, where I was placed in a cell and chained with handcuffs and chains," he said. “My eyes were kept covered the entire time, throughout that whole day.”

Kaplunov said he later came to understand that those holding him were not police officers, but officers of Ukraine's SBU Security Service.

"Let's just say it later turned out these were SBU officers," the RDK deputy commander said. “In how they described themselves during our exchanges, they referred to themselves, somewhat evasively, as state security officers.”

Kaplunov said that over the course of his detention, he was held at "two different sites."

"At one location I spent around five days, at the other around four days," he added.

“The first two days I was interrogated more intensively. By the third day, there was almost no more questioning. As I understand it, the goal was most likely to discredit [Ukraine's Defense Intelligence] special unit Tymur, and specifically its commander — Tymur himself. Accordingly, no physical force was used against me, aside from the abduction itself at the very start.”

According to Kaplunov, he was accused of communicating with representatives of Russia's FSB and of having "redirected that communication to his direct superior, Dmitry Ivanov."

Kaplunov said that after nine days, he was brought back to the location where he had been abducted, for a search of his apartment.

"Look, everything that happened in the outside world, obviously [I had no knowledge of] — I was there with no means of communication, no contact with anyone," he said.

“Maximally restricted. So I can't tell you anything about what was happening in the outside world, what communications were taking place between agencies, and so on. After nine days, I was simply told, 'Let's go.' There was also a vehicle transfer, either into one car or two. After that, I was brought to, roughly speaking, the place where I had been abducted. But I wasn't told beforehand that there would also be a search of my apartment.”

Kaplunov said he heard the loud gunfight in Kyiv's Berezniaky residential microdistrict "through the window," and was later freed by fighters from the special unit Tymur.

"All of the widely reported events that everyone could see on Telegram channels and news outlets, I only heard through the window," he said.

“I could hear that some kind of shooting was happening. But I had no way of knowing exactly what was going on. After that, the search ended, and our guys from special unit Tymur essentially took me away by force — for which I'm enormously grateful to them.”

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. According to Ukrainska Pravda, the Kyiv shooting was linked to his disappearance.

Kaplunov's lawyer said SBU officers had "abducted" him on Aug. 23, and that the shooting took place near the building where Kaplunov lived and where he had been brought for the apartment search. The lawyer said his client is now free.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, 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.