Stepan Kaplunov fought in Syria, switched to the side of Ukraine, fought in "Azov", and then joined “RDK”, which is part of the "Tymurʼs Special Unit" of GUR of the Ministry of Defense
Stepan Kaplunov is 35 years old. He was born in the city of Ivanovo, near Moscow. He spent his childhood in the Far North. Since the 2010s, he has been involved in the activities of Russian far-right organizations. Kaplunov claims that before coming to Ukraine to fight, he served in the Russian special forces and allegedly participated in hostilities in Syria.
Here, there are some questions about Kaplunovʼs version, because Russia officially began participating in the fighting in Syria only in the fall of 2015, when the Federation Council of the Russian Federation allowed Putin to use the Armed Forces beyond the countryʼs borders, in particular in Syria. The “Wagner” Group also arrived in Syria only at the end of 2015.
Kaplunov claims that his contract with the Russian special forces ended in 2013, and he has been in Ukraine since July 2014.
According to Kaplunov, he decided to fight for Ukraine because Russia occupied Crimea. He first joined the “Azov” battalion and fought there until 2016. Then he joined the Right Sector.
In February 2022, after the start of the full-scale invasion, he took part in the battles for the Kyiv region, and in March he liberated the village of Lukyanivka. During the fighting, Kaplunov was wounded: a tank hit him with many fragments, damaged his internal organs, his eye, and broke both legs.
He joined “RDK” in early 2023, was an instructor there, and in the summer of 2026 he became the deputy commander for combat work. “RDK” is fighting as part of the “Tymurʼs Special Unit” of GUR of the Ministry of Defense.
Stepan Kaplunov in Lukyanivka in 2022.
In Russia, in 2022, according to “Rosfinmonitoring”, Kaplunov was included in the list of persons involved in terrorist and extremist activities.
Stepan Kaplunov and his lawyer say that Kaplunov was kidnapped by the SBU officers ten days before the shootout
On August 26, lawyer Taras Borovsky posted on Facebook that on August 23, unknown individuals in civilian clothes in a BMW kidnapped a serviceman of the GUR MOD serviceman in Kyiv. He added a video recording of the kidnapping.
It shows people without balaclavas forcibly putting a man into a black BMW car, while he calls for help in Russian and shouts that he is being kidnapped. Borovsky did not name the kidnapped man. Only later did it become clear that he was talking about Kaplunov, and the recording was made in the courtyard at the 10 Shumskoho Street, where Kaplunov lived with several colleagues from GUR.
Already on August 28, Borovsky wrote that he had reason to believe that the kidnappers could have been employees of one of the law enforcement agencies, but did not specify which law enforcement agency he was talking about.
“Perhaps there is indeed a need to detain a person, but this might be done according to the law,” he noted.
Then Borovsky first named the name of the abductee — it is Stepan Kaplunov. On the same day, Borovsky reported on the hypothesis that “he was detained by the SBU’s Special Counter-Intelligence Department (CID)”.
He tried to look for him, but there was no information in the pre-trial detention center and the Main Directorate of SBU in Kyiv and the region. Already on September 1, the head of “RDK” Oleksandr Fortuna wrote about Kaplunov’s disappearance in the official “RDK” Telegram channel.
Video of Kaplunovʼs kidnapping. It was filmed by neighbors and handed over to the GUR people when they started looking for their comrade, because he did not show up for important meetings on August 23.
Later, Stepan Kaplunov himself said in an interview with Radio NV that on August 23, unknown people introduced themselves as police in his yard, handcuffed him and forcibly pushed him into a car. There, they blindfolded him. They did not charge him.
After changing several cars, they brought him to a “secret prison”. Kaplunov says, there he was put in a cell, handcuffed and chained, and he was blindfolded the whole time. His kidnappers introduced themselves as SBU officers.
“They accused me of having communication with FSB and that I switched it to my immediate commander Dmytro Ivanov,” Kaplunov said.
He added that under pressure, “I agreed with their version”, although it was false. 9 days later, they took him home to the Shumskoho Street, but did not warn him that they were planning to search his apartment.
His comrades were in the apartment at the time. They were making sure nothing was thrown into the apartment.
On the night of September 1-2, Kaplunov was brought home by the SBU officers to conduct an investigation. GURʼs and SBUʼs versions of what happened next differ significantly. Here is the GUR version
According to lawyer Taras Borovsky, on the night of September 1-2, the SBU special forces broke into an apartment at 10 Shumskoho Street (breaking down the door), where several GUR employees (with whom Kaplunov lived in the apartment) were “sleeping peacefully”. They laid everyone present on the floor. They brought with them Stepan Kaplunov, who had been kidnapped earlier, and reported that they were conducting an urgent search.
The investigative actions were carried out by employees of the SBU Counterintelligence Department. According to Borovsky, the CID employees were accompanied by about 30 armed fighters from the SBU Special Operations Center “A” (“Alpha”).
Although SBU stated that these were investigative actions, Borovsky, as Kaplunovʼs lawyer, was unable to be searched. According to him, there were no other lawyers at the scene either. Borovsky said that one of Kaplunovʼs roommates managed to inform the commander about what was happening, and he raised the alarm.
That is why the GUR officers began to gather at the scene. They blocked the exit of the SBU vehicles with their cars. The first of those who arrived were detained by the SBU officers at approximately 11 PM.
Borovsky says that the SBU officers had no identification marks and did not introduce themselves in any way. According to him, that was when the first shots rang out. No one was injured then. The detained GUR officers were handcuffed and laid on the ground, where they lay for at least 4 hours.
At 02:30 AM, Borovsky reported on his Facebook that the commander of the “Tymurʼs Special Unit” — Tymur — had arrived at the scene. One of the leaders of “Alpha” also arrived at the scene. They agreed that the detainees (including Kaplunov) would be released, and that SBU investigators would conduct the necessary investigative actions.
“The commanders shook hands,” an interlocutor familiar with the situation tells Babel. Having reached an agreement, the commanders went to report to their leadership.
At night, the commander of the "Tymurʼs Special Unit" arrived at the scene, and later joined by one of the commanders of "Alpha".
At 8 AM, the SBU press service reported that, together with GUR, the Ministry of Internal Affairs prevented a terrorist attack that FSB of the Russian Federation was preparing against one of the leaders of the Russian opposition political national movement, who arrived in Ukraine on the occasion of the Independence Day of our state.
A similar message appeared on the GUR website, but it quickly disappeared, because the “truce” was violated. While Tymur was in the office of the head of GUR Oleh Ivashchenko, and the commander of the “Alpha” was in the office of Oleksandr Poklad, a shootout began at approximately 8:40 AM on 10 Shumskoho Street.
Commenting on the events, Tymur explained that the agreements (for unknown reasons) were not broken by the fighters of the “Alpha”.
As Borovsky explained, after the commanders left, the CID officers tried to put the detained GUR members into cars. Since they had agreed that they would release everyone, the GUR members present tried to prevent this.
Borovsky tells Babel that despite the fact that some GUR members had award pistols (i.e. short-barreled weapons), they did not use them.
“Short-barreled weapons in comparison with long-barreled ones, which the SBU members had, and with their bulletproof vests, helmets and other gadgets, are worthless,” says Borovsky.
Borovsky says that the SBU officers first fired warning shots, then opened fire on the legs, and then started shooting at people.
As a result, three people were injured, one of them seriously (he is in intensive care). There were no injuries among the SBU employees.
According to one of the commanders of the “Tymurʼs Special Unit” Ruslan Kaganets, one of those who shot was Oleksandr Bova.
“Today he was shooting at the GUR people at night, and it was he who could have killed Denys Kireev in 2022,” Kaganets noted.
A clash between the SBU members and the GUR members on the morning of September 2, when the commanders left.
Kaganets claimed that the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) detained three special forces officers of the 5th Department of the CID SBU, and in particular, Oleksandr Bova.
But Babelʼs interlocutors in SBI noted that no one was detained, but simply three employees of CID were invited for an interview. Babelʼs interlocutor was unable to confirm or deny the information about Oleksandr Bova, but the MP Fedir Venislavskyi stated on Radio Liberty that he had similar information.
What happened on the night of September 1-2? The SBU version
SBU stated that they were conducting urgent investigative actions in Kaplunovʼs apartment "as part of a pre-trial investigation into a terrorist act organized by FSB of the Russian Federation".
The SBU press service stated that during a search at one of the addresses, “a group of individuals carried out an armed attack on the SBU operational-investigative group, they tried to prevent the conduct of investigative actions and blocked the passage of law enforcement officers with their cars”. To stop the attack, SBU called in the “Alpha” special unit. The law enforcement officers used weapons. SBU does not specify whether they were the “Alpha” or the CID employees.
Already on Thursday morning (September 3), the SBU press service reported that it had exposed the contacts of the deputy commander of RDK Stepan Kaplunov with the Russian special services.
According to SBU, Kaplunov was supposed to prepare an assassination attempt against one of the leaders of the Russian opposition movement, who was supposed to arrive in Ukraine at that time.
According to a source of Babel in the law enforcement agency, it is about one of the leaders of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in exile Akhmed Zakayev (as well as other military personnel of the Defense Forces of Ukraine) in exchange for money.
In support of its version, SBU cites a video recording of Kaplunovʼs testimony: in the recording, he admits that he had such contacts and provided SBU with relevant information.
Kaplunov himself said that he gave his testimony under pressure. In addition, SBU provided screenshots of Kaplunovʼs correspondence with an "FSB representative", in which he is offered to carry out contract killings.
In the correspondence, the intermediary notes that for $50 000 they offer to kill a "businessman from the border region" and specifies that "it is supposedly something criminal".
"Given the fact that this serviceman admitted to having contacts with the Russian FSB and cooperating with the investigation, no preventive measure was applied to him," SBU noted.
At the same time, SBU did not explain on what grounds Kaplunov was detained for 10 days without a court order. Kaplunov was not charged with any crimes, and his procedural status is unknown. As a result of the search, nothing was seized from Kaplunov.
The Prosecutor Generalʼs Office (PGO) and the State Bureau of Investigation are investigating the clash between GUR and SBU, but they have not yet even reported how they have classified the incident.
On Thursday, the head of SBU Oleksandr Poklad and the head of GUR Oleh Ivashchenko have been invited to a meeting of the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada, where they are to tell their versions of the events.
The meeting will be closed.