Budanov, head of the General Department of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, said many agents are stationed in Russia and ready to carry out attacks.
“This broke the illusion of their safety,” Major General Kirill Budanov, director-general of Ukraine’s General Department of Defense Intelligence, told the newspaper. Washington Post in an interview on January 31. “There are agents who plant explosives, there are people who operate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).”
General Budanov, 37, also said that many Russians are collaborating with Ukrainian intelligence. “There are actually people who are easy to work with on Russian territory, who understand that Russia should change. And we support such people,” the official said.
General Kirill Budanov in the 2022 interview. Photo: Reuters
Budanov stated that Russia will continue to “suffer trouble” inside the territory until Ukraine’s territorial integrity is restored. However, when asked about the role of Ukrainian special forces in the October 2022 attack on the Crimean bridge and two drone raids on Russian air bases in December, Budanov refused to confirm.
Kirill Budanov, head of the General Intelligence Service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, at his office in Kiev on January 20. Photo: WP.
He stressed that Ukraine must “do everything to ensure Crimea’s return by the summer” and rejected the idea that Moscow could use nuclear weapons if Kiev’s troops entered the peninsula.
“It’s a tactic of intimidation,” said Budanov, arguing that the decision to launch a nuclear strike would cause both a military and political defeat for Russia.
Meanwhile, Russia insists Crimea is part of its territory and has warned it will respond to any threat with “more powerful weapons”. Speaker of the Russian lower house of parliament Vyacheslav Volodin last month warned that a “global tragedy” could befall humanity if the West continues to arm themselves with weapons that Ukraine can use to raid cities and “regain territory”. territory” that Russia controls.
General Budanov predicts that this year Russia will focus on capturing more territory in Donetsk and Lugansk, but it will be unlikely that a new Russian attack from northern Ukraine and Belarus will occur.
Huyen Le (Theo Washington Post, RT, TASS)