Accounts Vary
The SBU said it had foiled an assassination plot orchestrated by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) against an unnamed leader of a Russian opposition nationalist movement. Ukrainian media identified the alleged target as Stepan Kaplunov, deputy commander of the RDK. He had received an award for his service only a month earlier.
On the morning of 1 September, the RDK posted on social media that Kaplunov had been abducted by unknown assailants from the courtyard of his home in Kyiv a few days earlier. According to Alexander Fortuna, chief of staff of the volunteer corps, the group immediately notified the SBU, the HUR, the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) and the ombudsman.
“So far, we have not received any clear information either about Stepan’s whereabouts or about the charges brought against him”, Fortuna said.
The Prosecutor General’s Office, which stated that “one of the units of the Ukrainian security forces” had attacked SBU officers, has launched an investigation. Police have cordoned off the area around the scene of the incident.
Reports later emerged that HUR personnel had been involved in a shootout with SBU officers. Despite the SBU’s claim that it had foiled an assassination attempt, reports suggested that its officers had themselves detained Kaplunov for unknown reasons. It remains unclear how that detention was connected to the alleged Russian assassination plot.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Presidential Office and former HUR chief, stated that “no one has the right to abduct servicemen with impunity, open fire in the streets of our cities, or issue or carry out criminal orders”. Budanov called for a thorough and impartial investigation, while President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded a public explanation from the agencies.
Taras Borovskyi, the lawyer representing Kaplunov, told Ukraine’s Kanal 24 that his client had been abducted as early as 23 August. On the night of 1–2 September, the SBU reportedly brought Kaplunov to his apartment to conduct a search. Borovskyi later said that Kaplunov had been released, although he did not know his current whereabouts.
The lawyer fears that state authorities may have planted incriminating evidence during the nighttime search, which he says was conducted without notifying Kaplunov’s legal representative. HUR personnel, however, encountered the SBU officers at the apartment and immediately raised the alarm.
Confrontation at Kaplunov’s Apartment
According to Borovskyi, HUR personnel began gathering at the scene, where a verbal confrontation with SBU officers ensued. The HUR unit commander, codenamed Timur, reportedly reached an agreement with the SBU to release Kaplunov and the detained HUR personnel at the scene.
In exchange, the intelligence officers were to remove the vehicles blocking the area. The verbal agreement was confirmed and many HUR operatives dispersed.
However, in the early hours of 2 September, when about 30 SBU agents and 10 HUR members remained at the scene, SBU officers began detaining men who had been released and were waiting to sign the final protocol.
According to Borovskyi, a scuffle ensued and SBU officers opened fire on the HUR personnel. Three wounded men received medical treatment. RDK Commander Denis Kapustin said he was present during a subsequent search of the apartment, this time conducted by police rather than the SBU. He said officers found nothing suspicious in Kaplunov’s apartment and made no comment on the possibility that an assassination attempt had been foiled.
The Struggle Between Institutions
The lawyer does not rule out the possibility that one of the SBU officers simply lost his nerve and pulled the trigger, setting off a chain reaction that led to the shootout. However, this is not the first clash between the HUR and the SBU. The Kyiv Independent recalls a case from March 2022, when HUR operative Denys Kireyev was thrown from a van in Kyiv with a gunshot wound to the head.
Despite efforts to discredit him, Kireyev is credited with achievements dating back to before the full-scale invasion. He obtained information for the HUR about Russia’s invasion plans, helping Kyiv prepare the capital’s defenses. Despite Russia’s plans, the city did not fall. According to Budanov, the SBU killed Kireyev.
The case also highlights the HUR’s longstanding relationship with nationalist formations, including the RDK. Earlier this year, military intelligence disclosed an operation in which it staged the death of the RDK commander to foil a Russian assassination plot.
Kapustin has previously had a more troubled relationship with the SBU. He claims that an illegal-weapons case against him stemmed from a weapon left in his apartment by a man he later learned was an SBU informant.
