As of: January 22, 2024, 6:24 a.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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Major General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukrainian military intelligence, in June 2022. © IMAGO/Jessica Koscielniak/USA TODAY Network
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, comments on Putin's alleged doppelgangers and the death of the former Wagner boss Prigozhin in a recent interview.
Kiev - The head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, has enjoyed almost cult status in his homeland since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
The 38-year-old has already completed several war missions and is said to have survived a total of ten assassination attempts - including a car bomb - but he himself comments on this with a shrug as "nothing special".
In an interview with the financial newspaper
Financial Times
, the military now puts on record a theory about ex-Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin that can hardly be independently verified: there is “not a single piece of evidence” for the death of “Putin's chef,” says Budanov.
Ukrainian intelligence chief on alleged death of Wagner boss Prigozhin
Budanov believes that the Wagner troupe has not been disbanded.
“Wagner exists,” said the military intelligence chief.
“And if I were talking about Prigozhin, I wouldn’t be so quick to draw conclusions,” the intelligence officer added in a conversation with the Financial Times
published on Sunday (January 21)
.
He was alluding to the death of the former Wagner boss, which was officially announced by the Kremlin.
According to Russian information, Prigozhin died in a plane crash in August last year.
Budanov is apparently not convinced of this.
“I’m not saying he’s not dead or that he’s dead,” the military man said.
“I say that there is not a single piece of evidence that he is dead.” The US war experts at the Institute for the Study of War spoke of a confusion by the Kremlin in their report on the alleged death of the Wagner boss.
The speculations of several Telegram channels that Prigozhin could have survived the crash were “unfounded,” the ISW said last August.
Experts continued at the time that it could possibly have been a diversionary tactic by the Kremlin.
Budanov on recognizing Putin's doppelganger: "Distance between the eyebrows"
Budanov had already commented on the health of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past.
One of his earlier statements was that the Kremlin leader has cancer and is terminally ill.
That's why the "dictator" has no fewer than three doppelgangers who have been adapted to Putin's external appearance through plastic surgery, he claimed several times.
In the current interview with the US financial newspaper, the Ukrainian spoke again about regularly seeing “clones” of Putin on television.
This cannot be verified independently, but from the intelligence officer's point of view, the evidence is easy.
Accordingly, he is examining Putin's "physiognomy", such as the "earlobes, the distance between the eyebrows and so on." That is not that difficult.
“You can easily do this yourself,” the military man continued.
Military intelligence chief of Ukraine on the current situation of the war
Budanov revealed only scant information about the Ukraine war itself.
North Korea is currently Russia's largest arms supplier, the military revealed.
He described the current situation in a differentiated manner.
“To say everything is fine is not true.
Saying that there is a catastrophe is also not true,” said the head of Ukrainian military intelligence.
Nevertheless, Ukraine will manage to keep Putin in check.
However , he rejected forecasts for 2024 to the
Financial Times
.
What is clear, however, is that Ukraine needs more men at the front.
The head of military intelligence said at the end of last year that the gap could not be closed with volunteers and confirmed that he wanted to draft men for military service.
“Everyone is keeping their fingers crossed for Ukraine, but they are running away,” said the secret service agent at a discussion event at the time.
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Because of the constant threats to his person, Budanov himself usually stays in an undisclosed location on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
The walls of his office are reinforced, the windows are protected with sandbags and the curtains are drawn - no light penetrates inside.
From here, the 38-year-old is planning attacks on Russian-occupied territory.
His successes are not always made public, but recently the Ukrainian secret service apparently managed to attack a terminal in the St. Petersburg area with drones in a “special operation” and set it on fire.