For the intelligence chief who oversaw Ukraine’s espionage operations during the war with Russia, 37-year-old Kyrylo Budanov created an unusual public profile that he used to deliver his message and threaten Russia from afar, according to Reuters, which interviewed a Ukrainian official week

After the uprising of Wagner’s mercenaries Yevgeny Prigozhin last month, Moscow’s ruling system seemed even more opaque, but also more unstable, Budanov took the opportunity to say that Ukrainian spies know about their enemy, News.ro reports.

In excerpts from his interview shown by Reuters earlier this week, he said that renegade Russian mercenaries had gone to the nuclear base in search of a backpack-sized nuclear weapon. Several Russian sources who spoke to Reuters later confirmed some of this information.

Budanov also made public a survey of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs intercepted by his services, which allegedly showed that the head of mercenaries Yevgeny Prigozhin enjoys support in Russia. Budanov did not provide evidence, but recalled that last year he accurately predicted when Russia would launch a full-scale invasion of his country, even though many, including in the West, doubted that would happen. “Who was right? Us,” Budanov says disarmingly simply and directly. “We have our own sources. In the closest offices (to Putin), so to speak. That’s why we usually know what’s going on,” he adds.

Budanov: “In 2014, we lost the information war. Now Russia will lose it”

The young head of Ukrainian military intelligence believes that now the head of some special services can no longer remain in the shadows. “This is no longer possible. And all subsequent wars will look like this. In any country of the world. We can say that we are creating a trend here,” said the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (GUR) in an interview with Reuters from his well-protected headquarters in the Ukrainian capital.

He explained that Ukraine has come to the conclusion that it needs to get its messages across publicly since 2014, when Moscow took the world by surprise by seizing Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and then launching a proxy war in eastern Ukraine. “We completely lost the information war in 2014. And the war that started (in 2022), we started here in a completely different way. And now the Russians are losing the information battle,” says Budanov.

A clawed owl in a bat

For interviews with foreign journalists, he takes a weapon and does not shy away from talking to them about the special services during the war. In his office in Kyiv, weapons and military equipment are everywhere. Enigmatic and steadfast, Budanov sits at his desk, dressed in military uniform, beneath a painting of an owl – the symbol of his department – ​​with its claws sunk into a bat, the emblem of Russia’s military intelligence agency.

In his office, the blinds are closed, and there are sandbags on the windows.

Appointed in August 2020, Budanov has seen his popularity and public profile rise in Ukraine during the war, as he is seen as the man behind efforts to confront Russia. He is an extremely hated character in the Russian media. The Kremlin called his statement in May “terrible.” “We will continue to kill Russians, wherever they are on the surface of the earth, until the complete victory of Ukraine,” this statement angered the Kremlin.

Russia has accused Ukrainian special services of killing a pro-war Russian blogger and a pro-war journalist, but Kyiv denies involvement.

Russian mass media reported that in April, a Moscow court arrested Budanov in absentia on charges of terrorism.

Compared to the Mossad

The prospect of a spy agency sending assassins to hunt Ukraine’s enemies has drawn comparisons to Israel’s Mossad, and Budanov does not object to the analogy.

“If you ask about the fact that the Mossad is famous for destroying the enemies of its state, then we do it and we will do it. We don’t need to create anything because it’s already there,” he said.

Budanov began his military career as a special forces agent and fought in the east of the country after Russia illegally annexed Crimea and pro-Russian sentiment took control of eastern Ukraine. He was wounded three times.

About the May incident: “This was not the first attempt”

After he took over the spy service, he was the subject of many failed assassination attempts, including a car bomb in which the attacker was blown up.

“The only thing I can say is that they don’t stop trying, but I repeat – everything is in vain,” he said.

In late May, Russian aircraft struck his headquarters on the Rybalsky Peninsula in Kyiv, leading to reports in the Russian media that he was seriously wounded. Budanov downplayed the importance of this incident. “This was not their first attempt. But as you can see, we are back here in the main sector of this building. When you were outside, you could see people walking and working. Everything works as it should,” he said.

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