The head of the Military Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, spoke on Saturday at the Yalta European Strategy Forum in Kyiv, which brought together Ukrainian and international politicians to discuss the evolution of the war, The Guardian reports, News.EN reports

On this occasion, Budanov commented on Russia’s tactics. “In terms of creativity and flexibility, we still have an advantage over them, they are rather superior,” said the head of GUR. “But they are adapting, trying to change their tactics, change the way they use their forces,” he added. “The strategy is not working for them, but there are some improvements in the tactics,” Budanov admitted.

Thus, he showed that the Russians moved to the mass use of drones, in conditions where before the war they “simply did not understand their significance.”

“Now we are very much being adapted and copied,” said the head of Ukrainian military intelligence.

How Budanov comments on the scandal with Elon Musk

Regarding the ongoing scandal surrounding Elon Musk and Starlink, Budanov said the following: “It is difficult to say where the truth is, what is being made up. Personally, I’m not sure that Elon Musk himself pushed any buttons to stop the drones from moving. As for the Starlink systems, they have not been working near Crimea for some time,” said the head of the GUR.

“We used special equipment and knew that there was no cover for us. Starlink continues to play an amazing role, as many systems use it to transmit data with drones when remote communication with command posts is needed, and they are quite good on the front line,” Budanov noted.

Elon Musk said he rejected Ukraine’s request last year to activate its Starlink satellite network in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol to help attack Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, saying he feared complicity in an act of “major” war. The billionaire made the comments on his social media platform X on Thursday after CNN cited an excerpt from a new biography of the SpaceX chief that said he ordered the Starlink network off the coast of Crimea last year to abort a surprise attack by Ukraine.

Musk said he had no choice but to decline Ukraine’s emergency request to “activate Starlink to Sevastopol.” He did not specify the date of the request. “The apparent intention was to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor,” Musk wrote. “If I agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be a clear complicit in a major war and escalation of the conflict,” he added.

Walter Isaacson’s new biography, “Elon Musk,” to be published Tuesday by Simon & Schuster, says that when Ukrainian underwater drones loaded with explosives approached the Russian navy last year, they “lost contact,” according to CNN. and were brought ashore without damage.” . The biographer also says that Musk’s decision, which prompted Ukrainian officials to plead with him to restart the satellites, was prompted by acute fears that Russia would respond to such a Ukrainian nuclear attack.