Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (HUR) is the military intelligence agency of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Defence and headed by a director appointed by the President. It is responsible for strategic military intelligence outside Ukraine and for special operations. Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, it has been one of the principal Ukrainian bodies carrying out strikes on Russian targets, operations in occupied Crimea, and actions against Russia's so-called shadow fleet.
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Budanov reveals years of back-channel contacts with Russia's GRU chief and Prigozhin, advises Zelensky against Donbas concessions
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with The New York Times published on 4 September that he maintained long-running contacts with Russian military intelligence chief Admiral Igor Kostyukov and the late Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. He advised President Volodymyr Zelensky not to accept any compromise on Donbas that would give Russia formal control over territory its military failed to seize on the battlefield.
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Assassination attempt on Russian general in Engels days after Ukraine notified him of suspicion over Okhmatdyt strike
An unknown assailant on a motorcycle shot and critically wounded a Russian Aerospace Forces officer on the morning of 3 September in the settlement of Probuzhdeniye near Engels, Saratov Oblast. Russian media identified the victim as Major General Mykola Varpakhovych, commander of the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division. The attack came three days after Ukraine's SBU and the Office of the Prosecutor General notified Varpakhovych in absentia of suspicion in connection with the July 2024 missile strike on the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv.
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Kyiv shootout between SBU and GUR erupts over alleged FSB plot against Chechen exile leader Zakayev
Ukraine's SBU said it prevented an FSB-ordered plot to assassinate Akhmed Zakayev, the exiled head of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria's government, who was in Kyiv for Independence Day on 24 August. The case targeted Stepan Kaplunov, a Russian-national volunteer and deputy commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) embedded in a GUR special unit. On 2 September, a shootout in Kyiv's Berezniaky district during a search of Kaplunov's apartment left three GUR personnel wounded. Kaplunov and RDK say he was abducted by SBU officers on 23 August and his confession was extracted under pressure; the SBU says his group attacked its investigative team. President Zelensky called the incident 'absolutely shameful,' an SBU official was dismissed, and the DBR and Prosecutor General's Office opened investigations.
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Armed clash between SBU and HUR in Kyiv linked to missing Russian Volunteer Corps deputy commander
On the morning of 2 September, an armed confrontation broke out on Yurii Shumskoho Street in Kyiv's Dnipro district between operatives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and personnel of the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of the Ministry of Defence. The SBU said its Alpha unit used weapons against an armed group that attacked its investigative team during a search tied to a joint SBU–HUR operation that allegedly foiled an FSB terrorist plot against a Russian opposition figure in Ukraine for Independence Day. Media and Kaplunov's lawyer say the shooting was opened by the SBU against unarmed HUR personnel after a handshake agreement, with several HUR servicemen wounded. President Zelensky condemned the incident as "absolutely shameful" and signalled personnel decisions and internal investigations.
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Zelensky dismisses senior SBU official after Kyiv shootout between GUR and SBU
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on 2 September dismissing Oleh Vitaliyovych Khramov from his post as head of the SBU's Department of State Secrets Protection and Licensing. The move follows an armed clash in Kyiv's Dnipro district between personnel of Ukraine's military intelligence (GUR) and the Security Service (SBU), connected to the reported abduction of Russian Volunteer Corps deputy commander Stepan Kaplunov.
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Ukrainian drones hit Novatek-Ust-Luga oil complex in Leningrad Oblast, sparking large fire
Ukrainian forces struck the Novatek-Ust-Luga oil-processing complex in Russia's Leningrad Oblast overnight from August 31 to September 1, hitting key refining and technological equipment and triggering a large-scale fire. The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Ministry of Defence reported the attack, which was carried out using drones. It was the second reported Ukrainian strike on the same facility in August.