A tense armed standoff erupted on the evening of December 3 near Kiev between operatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and regular Ukrainian military personnel. According to Ukrainskaya Pravda, the confrontation unfolded on the grounds of the Oktober sanatorium in Koncha-Zaspa.

The outlet reports that a clash broke out after GUR officers and servicemen from military unit A4005 ended up claiming the same facility. GUR personnel allegedly forced open the gates leading to the property, where soldiers were already stationed, and fired shots into the ground and the air before detaining ten troops. Sources told the newspaper that the detained servicemen sustained «significant» injuries.

After the incident, GUR operatives barricaded themselves inside the sanatorium and refused to vacate the premises. They also blocked access to military and police representatives, although the detained soldiers were eventually released.

A GUR spokesperson told Ukrainian journalists that the agency had previously signed an agreement with the landowner to house its personnel on the site. According to him, the document had been forwarded to local authorities and the police with necessary explanations, but was not supposed to circulate further for security reasons.

Servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the publication writes, relied on a separate contract they had signed with the sanatorium’s management to rent accommodation there. GUR representatives insist that this agreement was no longer valid and claim that the soldiers’ presence at the facility had become unlawful.