‘We’ve targeted quite a few people’

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov gets frank in a new interview

In an interview with the Ukrainian YouTube channel Rizni Lyudi, Ukraine’s defense intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov shared his views of the combat situation, Wagner Group’s role in the larger scheme of the war, and the Ukrainian secret services’ work on Russian territory. Meduza summarizes Budanov’s key points from the interview. The senior officer’s remarks have been abridged and edited for clarity. Here’s the gist of what he said.

The Russian army’s potential for advancing is completely depleted, but it still has a significant defensive potential. They’ve erected a multi-tier defense system. Still, this isn’t the same Russian army that could have been expected to conduct substantial offensive operations.

All in all, the Russian military grouping in Ukraine is 370,000 troops strong. Of these, more than 20,000 are National Guard servicemen. Another 7,000 serve in paramilitary groups.

Wagner Group is maximally effective; the Defense Ministry’s regular army is maximally ineffective. Out of sheer envy, the Russian command is trying to undermine and eliminate Wagner Group. Evgeny Prigozhin’s attacks on the ministry are not some “special psycho-informational operation.” The terrible thing is that 80 percent of what Prigozhin says is absolutely true.

Do Ukrainian secret services target Russian propagandists? Well, let’s put it this way: we’ve already successfully targeted quite a few people. There have been well-publicized cases everyone knows about, thanks to media coverage. But if you want to get any more personal, I’m going to have to tell you what the special services the world over always tell the journalists: we cannot comment on this matter. We’re not going to confirm or deny any information whatsoever.

Regardless of whether we like him or not, Alexander Lukashenko is no idiot. He doesn’t want another February 24 to happen in Belarus. The Kremlin didn’t take his opinion into account when invading, and he’s learned his lessons. It’s been a long time since Belarus fired a shot at Ukraine.

This, too, is a result of our own complex work. Verkhovna Rada Deputy Evgeny Shevchenko has been picked to liaise with Belarus, in order to keep it from entering the war and to make sure that, once the Russian army is driven out of Ukraine, no further offensive needs be expected from the Belarusian side. As of today, these efforts have paid off.