FROM OUR REPORTER
DNIPRO – In an interview with the Ukrainian edition of Elle a year ago, Marianna Budanova explained: “The moments when they try to kill you, kidnap you, blow up your car or break down the door of your house is “It’s time.” You started to worry about your loved ones. More than prophetic words, considering that yesterday the Ukrainian media broke the news that the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, survived an attempted poisoning with heavy metals.
Nothing new for the GRU’s number one, Budanov, who is said to have suffered ten assassination attempts, but it would be the first time that someone tried to kill his young wife. Trained psychologist, 30 years old, originally from the Kiev region, candidate for the administrative elections in the capital in 2020, former advisor to Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko for combating corruption in the field of youth politics and sports, since the beginning of the invasion Budanova lived with her husband 24 hours a day , 7 days a week in the office. “A situation that doesn’t bother them,” he explained on Radio Slobodna a few months ago. Since the woman was in the hospital and out of danger after a first course of therapy since her positive test, some officials from Budanov’s office were also poisoned, men of strong build who showed no symptoms.
The news of the attempted poisoning attack casts further shadows on Bankova, home of Kiev’s palaces of power. In recent days, President Volodymyr Zelensky and his advisers have repeatedly denounced Russia’s attempts to destabilize the executive branch and spoke of Moscow’s plots to weaken the country’s mood and stability. Zelensky himself has repeatedly confirmed that he has suffered at least ten assassination attempts.
As media attention on Kiev increases again, Brussels yesterday agreed at diplomatic level to quadruple its spending on training the Ukrainian military by allocating an additional 200 million euros to reach the target of 40,000 soldiers trained by the European Union.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on alliance members to “stay the course” in supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion. “It is our duty to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs. We just have to stay the course. Our security interests are also at stake,” said Stoltenberg on the sidelines of the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. However, these words come as the Biden administration’s proposed $60 billion U.S. military aid package remains in limbo due to opposition from some Republicans in Congress.
Finally, yesterday Ukraine and Italy began negotiations on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees within the framework of the G7 Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine.