Kiev’s top military spy Kirill Budanov says such individuals are being used as informants
Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Major-General Kyrylo Budanov (C). © Gian Marco Benedetto/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), Kirill Budanov, has claimed that Kiev has been “working” with figures within Russia’s opposition movements, who have been providing his agency with information.
In an interview with Ukrainian blogger Sergey Ivanov on Tuesday, the official did not disclose who exactly Kiev had been contacting within the various groups, but stated that it was “absolutely obvious” that Ukraine is cooperating with Russian anti-government figures.
“They are serving as a source of information for us and as hope for some kind of future,” said Budanov, pointing out that whenever the Russia-Ukraine conflict ends, the two countries would still share a common border and that there would still have to be some sort of relations.
In another interview with philosopher Valery Savchuk published on the same day, the spy chief also admitted that the GUR had “already got a lot” of Russian public figures but refused to confirm or deny the agency’s involvement in any specific assassinations, such as last year’s killing of journalist Darya Dugina or the recent car-bombing of author and political activist Zakhar Prilepin.
In an interview with Yahoo News on May 8, Budanov also stated that Ukraine’s forces “have been killing Russians” and “will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.”
In response, Moscow condemned Budanov’s “monstrous” statements. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described them as a “direct confirmation that the Kiev regime is not just sponsoring terrorist activity, but is its organizer.”
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As for anti-government groups in Russia, the country’s former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, accused the nation’s non-systemic opposition last month of not only openly wishing for the defeat and destruction of Russia, but also of playing a part in the “execution” of their fellow countrymen.
“Terrorism is again on our streets, in our cities,” wrote Medvedev in a lengthy Telegram post shortly after the murder of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. “But now, those engaged in terrorism are the same forces which were recently hailed by our Western friends as the ‘honor and conscience of an era’ and as opponents of the ‘authoritarian regime’,” he said.
“The masks are off. This is the true ‘color’ of the non-systemic opposition – it fights against its own people, it blows up and murders,” Medvedev proclaimed, adding that these people have “sworn allegiance to darkness and terror, along with the murderers of their native Kiev Nazi Regime.”
