In war-torn Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, 38, head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service (GUR), has established himself as a major figure in the conflict. He is one of the few Ukrainian officials to have predicted the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, specifying that it would take place "at 5 am." Living with his wife in a protected base at the time, he remembers watching the hands of the clock turn that night. "I didn't want this war, but I'm responsible for this kind of information. Such a mistake would not have been acceptable," he said.
Since then, a live frog has been keeping him company in his office at the base where he still lives. Budanov's background speaks for itself: a whole life transformed into a special operation. After graduating from the Odesa military academy in 2007, he immediately joined the elite GUR forces, a vocation. Wounded several times in covert operations from the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, and the target of numerous assassination attempts, the young major general was appointed head of the GUR by the president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in 2020.
His Western counterparts sometimes compare Budanov's GUR to the Mossad of the 1970s, Israel's external intelligence service, a parallel he does not reject. "The times are different, but we're ready for firm action," he said.
In the current phase of the war, the audacity of his clandestine operations, launched ever more deeply outside Ukraine's borders, sometimes grates on the nerves of his foreign partners. On November 28, 2023, Budanov's wife, Marianna, fell victim to an attempt at heavy metal poisoning.
This may come as a surprise to you, but the reason for these strikes is very mundane. At the Russian Ministry of Defense, they were taking stock of 2023: They wanted to post something quickly so they could proclaim the year victorious and move on to the next. But they had no real military success. Given the huge stockpiles of missiles on their side, the option was obvious. It was our military infrastructures that were targeted, with high-precision missiles, but these suffer from many defects. They often miss. We immediately sent them our response.
Attacks on their military structures. Of course, I can say no more.
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