Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is Ukraine's domestic intelligence and law-enforcement agency, subordinated to the President. It is responsible for counterintelligence, counter-terrorism, combating organised crime, and protecting state security. Its head is appointed by the Verkhovna Rada on the President's nomination. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the SBU has taken a prominent role in special operations, counterintelligence and counter-sabotage work.
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NABU suspects Ministry of Justice forensic experts of false valuation for SBU official's wife
Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies NABU and SAP have notified forensic experts from the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise (KNDISE) of the Ministry of Justice that they are suspected of producing knowingly false conclusions about the market value of an elite apartment belonging to the wife of a senior Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) official. The case centers on an apartment bought for 21.6 million UAH whose contract value was recorded at 12.8 million UAH, and on a subsequent KNDISE expertise that valued it at 12.3 million UAH. NABU says the experts ignored a recall of their appointment and backdated the conclusion, using the case to push for an independent expert institute under its own authority.
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Russian drone strike hits Rivne university, injuring dozens
On the morning of 13 October a Russian drone struck a building of Rivne State Humanitarian University in the centre of Rivne, setting it on fire, damaging the second floor and façade, and injuring dozens of people. Most of the wounded were university administrative staff; all students were in shelters at the time. The Faculty of Music Arts building was almost completely burned out, and Ukrainian authorities opened a war-crimes investigation.
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Ukraine strikes Moscow oil refinery and logistics complex in largest drone attack on Russian capital
In the night of 19–20 September 2026, Ukraine launched a massive drone and missile attack on Moscow and Moscow Oblast, hitting the Gazpromneft Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya and a warehouse complex in Sofyino. Fires broke out at both sites. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called it the largest drone attack ever on the Russian capital. At least two people were killed and six injured across Moscow Oblast, and more than 400 flights were cancelled or delayed at Moscow airports. President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the operation involved the SBU, Unmanned Systems Forces, SSO, HUR and Foreign Intelligence Service.
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Ukraine hits Rostov airfield and Yaroslavl oil refinery in overnight strikes
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Ukrainian forces struck a military airfield in Rostov-on-Don and the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in Yaroslavl on the night of September 17. The SBU carried out the airfield strike, while the refinery hit was a joint operation of the SBU, the Unmanned Systems Forces, military intelligence (HUR) and the Foreign Intelligence Service. Russian governors reported no casualties from either attack.
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Ukrainian parliament dismisses Prosecutor General Kravchenko after he announced suspicion against NABU chief and left Ukraine
Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada voted 317-0 to dismiss Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko on 15 September 2026, one day after he announced suspicions against NABU director Semen Kryvonos and a person close to the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP), and left the country. President Volodymyr Zelensky had suspended Kravchenko the previous evening. The dismissal comes against the backdrop of the 'Carthage' operation, conducted by NABU and SAP, which has exposed a corruption scheme involving officials of the Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG).
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Ukraine military intelligence chief calls Kyiv SBU–HUR shooting "unacceptable," denies "war between special services"
Head of Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) Oleh Ivashchenko publicly commented on the September 2 shooting between SBU and HUR personnel in Kyiv, calling it an "unacceptable incident" and rejecting suggestions of a "war between special services." The shooting occurred in the Berezniaky district during investigative actions linked to Russian Volunteer Corps deputy commander Stepan Kaplunov. The SBU and HUR have given competing accounts of the incident, and the State Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Prosecutor General have opened pretrial investigations.
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Ukraine kills Oleh Shutov in Donetsk, suspect in 2017 assassinations of Ukrainian officers
Ukrainian special services eliminated Oleh Shutov in occupied Donetsk on 27 July by detonating an improvised explosive device in his Subaru at the Dynamo sports complex, according to Ukrainian reports. Shutov, an operative of the so-called 'MGB DPR' and president of the 'DPR' judo and sambo association, was publicly named by former SBU chief Vasyl Hrytsak in 2019 as the direct perpetrator of the 2017 car-bomb assassination of Ukrainian military intelligence Major General Maksym Shapoval, and was also linked to the 2017 killing of SBU Colonel Oleksandr Kharaberush in Mariupol.
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Russian drone strikes SBU headquarters in central Kyiv, hits building opposite Saint Sophia Cathedral
On September 4, a Russian drone struck the central building of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Volodymyrska Street in central Kyiv, opposite Saint Sophia Cathedral. A fire broke out and part of the floor structure and outer wall were destroyed. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the drone was directed at the office of acting SBU head Oleksandr Poklad, who was not in the building at the time, and ordered preparation of an adequate, tangible, and where possible mirror response.
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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.