Ukraine surprises secret service chief ‘incompetence’ blasphemes Russian military
04/17/2022, 21:08
After the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kiev region, the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service can barely hide his astonishment. He wonders “how incompetent and negligent” Moscow’s military leadership planned and carried out the operation.
Nearly two months after the start of the Russian invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans have not changed. “The objective of the military aggression has remained the same: this is an operation to destroy the state in Ukraine. Ukraine must cease to exist as a state,” Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, told Der Spiegel.
When asked why Russia decided to completely withdraw its troops from the Kiev region, Budanov replied: “They didn’t just withdraw – we drove them out of the Kiev region. It started when we recaptured the city of Irpin. This threatened to cut their troops in two.” in the Kiev region.”
He is not surprised at the failure of the original Russian plan to conquer Kiev – but he is surprised at something else: “How incompetent and negligent Russian commanders approached the implementation of such a massive operation. If they really believed it was over in three days – and to our knowledge they were adamant about it – so the Russian leadership has to ask themselves how competent their generals are.”
The Major General, who currently sees major fighting between Kharkov and Mykolaiv, repeated the Ukrainian government’s demand for weapons from Germany: “We need artillery systems – the German army is particularly strong in this. And unfortunately we need tanks because we have suffered so much heavy losses in armored vehicles.” The Ukrainian army wants to use the weapons to liberate the occupied territories – including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Budanov has no problem training Ukrainian soldiers in the Leopard tank, for example: “We will learn this quickly. That’s not advanced math.”