Ukraine suspects that Russia poisoned the wife of the head of the Ukrainian military espionage Kyril Budanov, said the spokesman of the GUR Andriy Yusov, reports AFP and a note from News.ro.

“This is the main hypothesis,” Yusov said.

He assures that this is intentional poisoning with heavy metals – “mercury and arsenic” and not an accident.

Yusov clarified that the “target” was Marianna Budanova, not her husband.

“It is simply impossible that the commander (No. Kyrylo Budanov) was directly affected in this way,” he said.

The adviser to the mayor of Kyiv Vitaliya Klitsykova Budanova was hospitalized “more than a week ago”, Yusov also reported.

He confirmed media reports about the discovery of traces of heavy metals in the houses of “several” Ukrainian military intelligence officers, but did not give details.

Russia did not immediately react to these accusations.

Maryana Budanova is being treated after poisoning

Babel wrote on Tuesday morning, citing military intelligence sources, that Budanova was hospitalized due to heavy metal poisoning. Another source confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that she was poisoned. Later, the information was officially confirmed by the spokesperson of GUR.

It is reported that she was hospitalized after a prolonged deterioration of her health.

“The course of treatment is now being completed, and then there will be an examination by the doctors,” – informed the source of the Ukrainian publication “Babel”.

“These substances are not used in any way in everyday life and military activities. Their presence may indicate a deliberate attempt to poison a specific person,” the source added.

In a summer interview with Radio Liberty, Budanov said that his wife Maryana now lives with him in his office, although she does not work in the Intelligence Service of the Ministry of Defense.

“My beloved wife is always with me, because she is with me in the office 24/7. I used to go to work and come home, but now…” the head of Ukrainian military intelligence said in an interview.

Kyrylo and Maryana Budanov got married in August 2013. In October 2022, Budanova gave an interview to the Ukrainian magazine Elle, in which she talked about herself. She said that she is a psychologist by education, and from 2015 to 2017 she was a volunteer at the Main Military Hospital on Hospitalnaya in Kyiv.

Zelenskyi and Budanov are the main targets of Russian attempts

At least 10 attempts were made on Budanov by the Russian special services. It is believed that Zelensky survived more than 12 attempts to kill him by Russian forces since the beginning of the war.

Russia accuses Budanov and Ukrainian intelligence services of involvement in several murders on its territory, including the killing of Daria Dugina during an attempt to eliminate her father and the killing of prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a cafe bombing in St. Petersburg. Petersburg.

In April, a Russian court issued an arrest warrant for Budanov, accusing him of organizing “terrorist attacks” on the territory of Russia.

Ukraine officially denies any involvement in these murders. But Reuters writes that Budanov, who was appointed in August 2020, “cannot resist” comparisons between the intelligence he leads and the Mossad, an Israeli service known for killing enemies of the state of Israel abroad.

“If you’re asking me about the Mossad because it’s known for exterminating the enemies of its state, then we’ve done that and we’ll continue to do that,” he said.

In May, Budanov provoked a furious reaction from the Kremlin after declaring that “we have killed Russians and will continue to kill Russians anywhere in the world until the complete victory of Ukraine.”

In June of this year, Russian media claimed that Budanov was seriously injured in a missile attack on the GUR headquarters in Kyiv, where the general’s office is also located, and that he was flown to Germany for emergency treatment. Later, Budanov appeared and told, among other things, about this attempt by the Russians to kill him.

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