The deputy commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, which fights for Ukraine, was either abducted or detained in Kyiv. The incident ended in a shootout between Ukraine’s security services.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) announced on the morning of September 2 that it and Ukrainian military intelligence (the HUR) had thwarted a terrorist attack planned by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) against “one of the leaders of a Russian opposition political national movement.” The SBU did not name the man, adding only that he had come to Ukraine for the country’s Independence Day.

RBC-Ukraine’s sources say the man is Stepan Kaplunov, deputy commander of the Ukrainian unit known as the Russian Volunteer Corps.

The day before, the Russian Volunteer Corps declared that Kaplunov had been abducted in the yard of his home several days earlier. The unit stated it immediately “raised the alarm” and contacted the SBU, the HUR, and other Ukrainian security services, but noted it had still not received “any clear information about either Stepan’s whereabouts or the charges against him.”

“If Ukraine is a state governed by the rule of law, and not a territory sliding into lawlessness and total arbitrary rule by security officials, like the Russian Federation, for example, this is simply unacceptable!” the post said.

Ukrainian Telegram channels reported overnight on September 2 that SBU and HUR officers had exchanged gunfire in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district, possibly in connection with Kaplunov’s detention or abduction. Taras Borovsky, the lawyer representing the Russian Volunteer Corps deputy commander, posted video from the scene and said law enforcement officers had arrived at the serviceman’s home, prompting his fellow servicemen to show up “on alert” — after which gunfire broke out.

Warning: the video below contains profanity.

The SBU addressed the reports of gunfire the next morning, stating that officers were carrying out “urgent investigative measures” as part of a probe into “a terrorist attack organized by the FSB.” During a search, it added, a “group of people” attacked SBU officers in an attempt to obstruct the proceedings. The SBU called in fighters from its Alpha unit, who opened fire “while suppressing armed resistance” and detained the attackers. Preliminary findings indicated they belong to one of Ukraine’s Defense Forces units. The agency reported that there were injuries “among those who resisted.”

A security services source who spoke to the Ukrainian outlet Strana offered a different version of events. He said he could not identify the real reason for the conflict or Kaplunov’s detention but suggested it might stem from a dispute between security services “over providing protection for fraudulent call centers.”

“Unknown individuals who abducted one of the Russian Volunteer Corps commanders, Kaplunov, brought him to Shumska Street, to one of his addresses. HUR special forces arrived there and tried to detain the unknown individuals. But those unknown individuals turned out to be SBU special forces. Commanders of the relevant SBU and HUR units arrived at the scene, shook hands, and it seemed like everything had calmed down. But then other SBU representatives showed up and began detaining HUR officers. A new shootout broke out. There are wounded. The situation is developing,” the source said.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian president’s office and former head of the HUR, said the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Prosecutor General’s Office are already handling the “situation” involving the shooting, adding that “no one has the right to abduct servicemen with impunity, open fire on the streets of our cities, or give and carry out criminal orders.”

Kaplunov was born in Ivanovo. In an extensive 2022 interview with CNN, he said he had served in the Russian army and fought, among other places, in Syria. He said he opposed Vladimir Putin’s regime but did not speak out against it until Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, after which he left for Ukraine and joined the Ukrainian Azov regiment. Kaplunov has a tattoo on his arm reading “Sieg oder Tod” (“victory or death” in German), a phrase also used by soldiers in Nazi Germany, one he has called “his life’s motto.” Astra, an independent Telegram channel, and a source in Russian law enforcement cited by the Russian state news agency TASS have both called Kaplunov a neo-Nazi. According to Astra, he posted photos on his Instagram account that appeared to show executed Russian prisoners of war. In his CNN interview, Kaplunov called himself a “Ukrainian nationalist” but said he had never held neo-Nazi or racist views.