Marianna Budanova and Kirilo Budanov, last January in Kiev.VIACHESLAV RATYNSKYI (Portal)
The intelligence services (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine told the press this Tuesday that there were indications that several people had been poisoned at their headquarters in Kiev. The number of possible victims was not mentioned, although his spokesman Andrii Yusov confirmed to the Suspilne TV channel that one of them was Marianna Budanova, the wife of Kirilo Budanov, the head of the GUR.
GUR sources indicated in a statement sent to the Ukrainian media that heavy metals were detected in Budanova’s blood: “These substances are not used in any way in daily life or in military affairs. “His presence could indicate an attempt to poison a specific person,” without specifying whether the target of the possible attack was her or her husband. The GUR added that the evidence suggests that the poisoning was caused by eating food. The Budanov couple live in the GUR headquarters in Kiev.
The GUR also did not specify when Budanova was hospitalized. Yes, it has been reported that she remains in the hospital, medical treatment has ended and her development is being awaited. Pravda newspaper cites other GUR sources who claim that there are more people who are drunk but are in a less serious situation than Budanova. When asked about Suspilne, Yusov would neither confirm nor deny whether she was the only person who required treatment by the health service.
Budanov is one of the most important positions in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s circle. He is a lieutenant general, a veteran of the Donbas War and one of the president’s most trusted soldiers. He is also one of the most popular figures in Ukraine and the main initiator of Ukrainian sabotage operations on Russian territory and on the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by the Kremlin in 2014. Yusov claimed last August that Russia had attempted to assassinate Budanov on multiple occasions.
Budanova is a police officer and works as a professor of legal psychology at the National Police Academy, as her husband explained last September in an interview for the military information website The War Zone: “She has been living with me since the beginning of the invasion. ” [en febrero de 2022]. She’s a police officer and it’s not a problem for her like it might be for someone else.”
Russian infiltration
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The news comes as Zelensky and his team warn that they have discovered an attempt at Russian infiltration into the Ukrainian power establishment. Oleksii Danilov, secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, explained in The Times newspaper on Monday that Moscow had activated a network of agents in Kiev’s key institutions in order to destabilize the country and, above all, to create a break between Zelensky and his commander , Valeri Zaluzhni.
Zelensky and Zaluzhni made their differences visible for the first time in November. Zaluzhni told The Economist that the war had stalled and there were no signs of major progress in the coming year. The president publicly distanced himself from his commander-in-chief and fired senior officials close to Zaluzhni. Mariana Bezuhla, a lawmaker from Zelensky’s party and a member of the Rada’s defense policy committee, called for the commander-in-chief’s dismissal in a statement on Sunday.
Danilov sparked further controversy when he stated in the Times that there were Kremlin-paid agents in the Ukrainian security services (the SSU, the secret services directly dependent on the presidency). The SSU responded with a statement claiming that the British newspaper had misinterpreted Danilov’s words. Zelensky also claimed on November 17 that Russia had launched a plan to create social instability in Ukraine that would lead to a coup.
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