[1/3]Major General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, speaks during an interview with Portal amid the Russian attack on Ukraine July 6, 2023 in Kiev, Ukraine. Portal/Valentyn Ogirenko/File photo
- Ukrainian spy boss builds unusual public profile
- Kiev is defeating Moscow in the “information war,” he says
- The spy chief says his agency focuses on agent networks
KIEV, July 14 (Portal) – He carries a pistol when interviewing foreign journalists and discussing war intelligence services. Weapons and military equipment lie scattered on the floor of his Kiev office. He says he has “sources” close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
For an intelligence chief who ran Ukraine’s spy operations during the war with Russia, 37-year-old Kyrylo Budanov has built an unusually public profile, which he uses to spread his message and threaten Russia from afar.
Nowadays, a spy boss can no longer stay hidden, he says.
“Without that, it’s no longer possible,” the head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) said in an interview with Portal at his heavily defended headquarters in the capital.
“And all the next wars will be like this. In every country in the world. We can say that we are setting a trend here.”
Since 2014, when Moscow surprised the world by seizing Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and unleashing a proxy war in the east, Ukraine has drawn conclusions about the need to get its message across, he says.
“We completely lost the information war in 2014. And the war that started in (2022) – we started very differently here. And now the Russians are losing the information battle.”
Since a mercenary mutiny in Russia last month rendered Moscow’s ruling system more opaque and unstable, Budanov has taken the opportunity to open up about what Ukraine’s spies know about their enemy.
In parts of his interview, reported by Portal earlier this week, he said the mutinous Russian mercenaries were on their way to a nuclear base to capture a backpack-sized nuclear weapon. Several Russian sources who spoke to Portal confirmed parts of this account.
Budanov also cited an intercepted poll by the Russian Interior Ministry, which he said showed that mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had support inside Russia.
He presented no evidence, but noted that he had accurately predicted that Russia would invade within the past year, before full-scale war broke out. “Who was right? We.”
“We have our own sources. So to speak, in the nearest offices (to Putin). So we usually know what’s going on.”
Denigrated in Russia
Enigmatic and intense, Budanov, dressed in military uniform, sat behind his desk under a painting of an owl – his agency’s symbol – sinking its claws into a bat, the emblem of Russian military intelligence.
The blinds on his office were drawn with sandbags in the windows.
Appointed in August 2020, Budanov has seen his popularity and public profile rise during the war in Ukraine, where he is portrayed as masterminding behind the scenes efforts to retaliate against Russia. In Russian media he is a hate figure.
The Kremlin called “outrageous” a remark he made in May that “until Ukraine’s complete victory, we will continue to kill Russians all over the world.”
Russia has blamed Ukrainian intelligence for the killing of a pro-war Russian blogger and journalist. Kyiv denies involvement. Russian media reported that a Moscow court arrested Budanov in absentia in April on terrorism charges.
The prospect of a spy agency sending assassins to hunt down Ukraine’s enemies has drawn comparisons to Israel’s Mossad. Budanov does not resist the analogy.
“If you’re asking if Mossad is known for eliminating enemies of its state, then we did it and we will do it. We don’t have to create anything because it already exists.”
Budanov began his military career as a special forces agent, serving in the east after Russia illegally annexed Crimea and his proxies took over Ukraine’s eastern fringes. He was wounded three times.
Since taking charge of the spy service, he has been the subject of numerous failed assassination attempts, including a botched car bombing that blew up the assailant.
“The only thing I can say is that they haven’t stopped trying, but I repeat: it’s all for naught,” he said.
In late May, a Russian airstrike hit his headquarters on the Rybalskyi Peninsula in Kiev, sparking Russian media reports that he had been seriously injured. Budanov downplayed its importance.
“It wasn’t her first attempt. But as you can see, here we are once again at the headquarters of this building. When you were outside you could see people walking and working. Everything works as it is.”
Reporting by Tom Balmforth Additional reporting by Sergiy Karazy Editing by Mike Collett-White and Peter Graff
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