Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov in Kyiv, Ukraine, 25 February 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE / SERGEY DOLZHENKO
Ukrainian military intelligence has made repeated attempts on the life of Vladimir Putin, its director Kyrylo Budanov revealed in an interview with Ukrainian independent news outlet New Voice on Saturday.
“There have been assassination attempts, but, as you can see, they haven’t been successful so far,” said Budanov, who has headed the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine since 2020, without providing further details.
The interview, which came out just hours before US presidential candidate Donald Trump narrowly survived an attempt on his life in Pennsylvania, didn’t appear to come as a shock to the Kremlin, however.
Responding to the comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described “the threat from the regime in Kyiv” as “obvious,” but stressed that all necessary measures were taken to ensure Putin’s security.
In the same interview, Budanov warned of the threat of a large-scale offensive by Russian troops from the north of the country, adding that the Armed Forces of Ukraine would find themselves in a difficult situation until the end of the year.
“I have already told the Western press not to expect much good news from me this year, unfortunately,” Budanov said.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) arrested two law enforcement officers in May it believed were plotting to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky. The SBU said it had exposed “an agent network” supervised by Russia’s Federal Security Service that was planning to assassinate Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials, among them SBU head Vasyl Maliuk and Budanov himself.
