Ukraine war latest: Fallout from 'disgraceful' HUR, SBU shootout deepens with more FSB accusations, denials

Key developments on Sept. 3:

• Fallout from 'disgraceful' HUR, SBU shootout deepens with more FSB accusations, denials
• Russia strikes Coca-Cola plant, injures 6 in eighth straight day of attacks on Kyiv
• Moscow airports cancel flights after Zelensky's 'closed skies' warning
• Russian commander shot just days after being linked to strike on Kyiv children's hospital

Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) deputy commander Stepan Kaplunov has denied allegations of contacts with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and involvement in planned assassinations, saying in a post on social media on Sept. 3 that he admitted to the allegations only after being held for nine days under psychological pressure and threats.

Without naming Kaplunov directly, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) made the allegations against a "specified person" earlier on Sept. 3 and said it had uncovered their contacts with Russian intelligence while working to prevent an FSB-organized assassination planned for Ukraine's Independence Day.

The competing accounts emerged a day after a confrontation between SBU officers and members of Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) in Kyiv ended in a shootout with three HUR service members injured.

According to the SBU, the "specified person" was tasked with preparing an assassination attempt against a Russian opposition figure expected to visit Ukraine, as well as killing other Ukrainian service members in exchange for money.

The SBU said they had acknowledged contacts with the FSB and provided information that allowed investigators to identify others involved in the alleged plot. It also said investigators documented correspondence with an FSB representative on his phone.

Kaplunov, however, told Radio NV that he had been forcibly detained near his home on Aug. 23 by men who identified themselves as police officers. He said he was then handcuffed, blindfolded with tape, and taken to what he described as a "secret prison."

Kaplunov said he was intensively questioned during the first two days and threatened.

"They were saying that one could disappear forever. There was talk about 'digging a hole.' We all understand what that means," Kaplunov said.

Kaplunov said that under those conditions he agreed with the investigators' version that he had been in contact with the FSB and had later passed that contact to his direct commander, Dmytro Ivanov.

"Although in reality nothing like that happened," he said. "I went along with it because of the position I was in and under psychological pressure."

Kaplunov said he was held at two different locations and released after nine days. He was then returned to his home, without being told that investigators were about to search his apartment, he said.

Russia strikes Coca-Cola plant, injures 6 in eighth straight day of attacks on Kyiv

Russian attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding oblast on Sept. 3 injured at least six people and damaged a Coca-Cola plant during the eighth consecutive day of strikes on the Ukrainian capital, local authorities and officials reported.

Six people, including a 12-year-old girl, were injured as a result of the attack Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Debris had damaged several cars and injured people in Kyiv's Darnytsia district, the Kyiv City Military Administration reported

Local Telegram channels and lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko reported that a Coca-Cola plant in the city of Brovary was damaged. The Kyiv Independent reached out to a representative of the Coca-Cola company for comment but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.

Due to Russian strikes on the city, Kyiv's inhabitants had to endure seven air raid alerts since midnight, as well as the periodic sounds of air defenses, jet-powered drones, and explosions which carried on into the evening.

Shortly after 8 p.m. Kyiv time, Klitschko reported a fire had broken out in a high-rise residential building in the Holosiivskyi district and 15 people had been evacuated.

Moscow airports cancel flights after Zelensky's 'closed skies' warning

Flights in and out of Moscow's Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo airports were restricted for the second night in a row on Sept. 2, after Ukraine warned of a new campaign to "close" Russian skies.

"Temporary restrictions on the arrival and departure of aircraft have been introduced," Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sept. 1 warned airlines, insurers, and foreign governments that Russian airspace "will be de facto closed" because of Ukrainian drones.

Zelensky gave few details about what the new campaign would entail, other than making clear it would involve lots of drones.

"There will simply be drones in Russia's skies on a scale that has to be taken into account," he said, as he warned "every airline that uses Russian airspace" against flying over the country.

Most Western airlines stopped flying to Russia after the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. One exception is Turkey's Pegasus Airlines, which on Sept. 2 announced that "flights to Russia scheduled overnight from 1 to 2 September were canceled due to technical and operational reasons."

It added that flights from "Sept. 2 onwards are operating as scheduled."

But FlightRadar24 live tracking of arrivals at Sheremetyevo Airport showed almost every flight scheduled for the afternoon of Sept. 3 either delayed or canceled. A similar situation was reported at Vnukovo Airport.

Russian commander shot just days after being linked to strike on Kyiv children's hospital

A Russian military commander was shot by an unknown person near Engels in Russia's Saratov Oblast on the morning of Sept. 3, Russian media reported, just days after he was linked by Ukraine's SBU to a deadly strike on a children's hospital in 2024.

The attacker shot the commander twice before escaping on a motorbike. The commander was hospitalized in critical condition, according to Russian state media.

Russian Telegram channels claimed that the commander was Maj. Gen. Nikolay Varpakhovich, of Russia's 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division.

On Aug. 31, the SBU announced that it handed Varpakhovich a "notice of suspicion" in absentia for involvement in a Russian missile strike on the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv on July 8, 2024.

Russian forces hit Ukraine's largest children's medical center, killing two adults and injuring at least 34 people, including nine children. Footage showed that the building suffered a direct hit by a Russian missile rather than being damaged by fallen debris.

More than 600 patients were in the hospital during the attack. The missile damaged several parts of the building, including the children's oncology and surgery rooms, the SBU said.

Ukrainian investigations established that Varpakhovich gave the order, carried out by a Russian Tu-95MS strategic bomber, the SBU added.