According to the Ukrainian military intelligence service, almost two months after the start of the war in Ukraine, nothing has changed in the plans of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The objective of the military aggression has remained the same: this is an operation to destroy the state of Ukraine,” intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told Der Spiegel, according to an advance report on Sunday.
According to Russia, Ukraine should “cease to exist as a state,” Budanov said. When asked why Russia decided to withdraw its troops from the region around the capital Kiev, Budanov said: “They didn’t just retreat like that – we drove them out of the Kiev region. It started when we took the city of Irpin. This threatened to cut off their forces.” in two in the Kiev region.”
Budanov said he was not surprised by the failure of the Russian plan to conquer Kiev. But he is surprised by something else: “How incompetent and negligent Russian commanders approached implementing such a massive operation. If they really believed they would be able to finish it in three days – and according to our findings they were absolutely convinced of that – then the Russian leadership must ask itself how competent its generals are.”
Budanov also repeated the Ukrainian government’s demand for weapons from Germany: “We need artillery systems – the German army is particularly strong in them,” the major general said. “And unfortunately we need tanks, because we have had very large losses from armored vehicles.”
The Ukrainian army wants to use the weapons to liberate the occupied territories, Budanov said. This includes the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014. Budanov has no problem training Ukrainian soldiers on the Leopard battle tank, for example: “Let’s learn this quickly. With all due respect, this is not advanced math.”