Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted Ukraine’s SBU and GUR after a shootout in Kyiv between the two intelligence and security services reportedly left three officers injured. The SBU is Ukraine’s internal security service, like MI5 or the FBI. The GUR, or HUR, is its armed forces counterpart and also carries out military activities and special operations. Reports said the gunfight stemmed from the SBU taking into custody a leader of an anti-Kremlin Russian unit that fights for Ukraine under the watch of the GUR. Ukraine’s president called the situation “absolutely shameful” as he called in prosecutors and investigators, as well as firing a senior SBU officer. “Here in Ukraine, shooting is only permissible at Russian occupiers in defence of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “Our state will not perceive any other shootout as something that anyone is allowed to do.”
Russian drones hit central Kyiv on Wednesday in a seventh day of intense strikes on the capital. Explosions were heard again in the early hours of Thursday morning. On Wednesday, 11 people were wounded, and residential and university buildings damaged. Russia also struck power facilities in the southern Odesa region with missiles and drones, authorities said, knocking out power to more than 350,000 homes. Two people were killed and eight wounded in strikes on the south-eastern city of Dnipro, the regional governor said, where food warehouses and educational buildings were damaged.
