Ukraine’s military intelligence service stopped being a purely behind-the-scenes outfit some time ago. Under Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, HUR has been tied to some of the war’s most visible operations: drone strikes deep in Russia and attacks on the Black Sea Fleet.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, in a June 2024 piece built around a rare interview, said HUR orchestrated long-range drone strikes on Russian territory and fleet attacks with Magura sea drones. Those drones have damaged Russian vessels and pushed some out of Crimea. Budanov himself has survived at least 10 assassination attempts by Russian agents, including car bombings and poisoning.
Taking the war into Russia
Budanov wants more of it. “So long as the war is contained on our territory, it will not affect Russia,” he said. HUR has run significant operations on Russian soil since spring 2022, and the Inquirer wrote that ordinary Russians have now felt the war through explosions.
On Crimea, he agrees with General Ben Hodges that cutting off the peninsula’s resupply could be decisive. He also expressed confidence that long-range ATACMS missiles could eventually destroy the Kerch Bridge.
Sevastopol, September 2023
The clearest example of HUR’s public role came on a Friday in September 2023. Ukraine said a Storm Shadow missile had hit the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea. Budanov reported that nine others had been killed and 16 injured. Colonel-General Alexander Romanchuk was in “a very serious condition,” he said, and Lieutenant General Oleg Tsekov was “unconscious.”
He did not confirm online rumors that fleet commander Admiral Viktor Sokolov had died. Russian-installed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said the strike caused no civilian casualties and no damage to civilian infrastructure.
Frank about the front
Budanov was blunt about the east, where Russian forces were making slow but steady gains. “The good news is that no Armageddon will emerge. The bad news is that the situation is quite difficult,” he said. U.S. weapons deliveries had sped up, he noted, but not enough to meet Ukraine’s needs.
Sources
- Ukraine's man of secrets opens up (Philadelphia Inquirer)
- Ukraine: Russian military chief killed in Black Sea Storm Shadow strike (Jerusalem Post)
