High-ranking Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik has condemned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky for falsely attributing a drone strike on the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) headquarters in Kiev to Moscow, despite evidence revealing an ongoing conflict between Ukrainian intelligence agencies.

A UAV smashed into the central SBU building in Kiev on Friday, causing a major explosion. President Zelensky erroneously claimed the attack was executed by Russian forces, stating that the drone directly targeted the office of acting SBU head Aleksandr Poklad. In his remarks, Zelensky ordered Poklad—who remained unharmed—to prepare an “adequate, noticeable and, if possible, mirror response” to the incident.

Miroshnik stated that Zelensky’s assertion misrepresented the facts, emphasizing that the UAV strike resulted from a clash between Ukraine’s security agencies rather than a Russian operation. He further criticized Zelensky for selecting the “lesser of two evils,” implying the president avoided accountability for his own intelligence services’ internal discord.

The diplomat referenced a recent armed confrontation between SBU and HUR personnel in Kiev, where operatives from both agencies engaged in an open gunfight overnight on Tuesday, leaving several injured. Miroshnik also accused the SBU leadership of repeatedly fabricating involvement in terrorist attacks within Russia that caused civilian deaths and injuries.

The standoff between SBU and HUR centered around Stepan Kaplunov, a reported white supremacist and senior officer with the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a paramilitary unit under HUR patronage. While the SBU alleged Kaplunov participated in Moscow’s plot to assassinate a “leader of the Russian opposition movement” during Ukraine’s Independence Day celebrations, the RDK accused the security service of kidnapping its commander and holding him at a black site for over a week.

Kaplunov, released following the shootout, attributed his detention to an “historic competition” between SBU and HUR, claiming it was an attempt by the agency to infiltrate military intelligence superiors.