Russian prosecutors say Kyrylo Budanov masterminded more than 100 attacks on Russian soil. Asked about the scope of his operations, the Ukrainian military intelligence chief told the Globe and Mail in March 2024: “We are at war with the Russian Federation and everything to do with it.”
The Russian charge list, according to the Globe and Mail, includes the 2022 blast that damaged the Crimean Bridge.
From Odesa to the intelligence directorate
Budanov was born on January 4, 1986, in Kyiv. Reuters reported that he graduated from the Odesa Institute of the Ground Forces in 2007 and went straight into the Main Directorate of Intelligence at the Defence Ministry. When Russian proxy forces fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014, he was in the fighting. Among his state awards is the Full Knight of the Order of Courage.
On April 4, 2019, a Russian saboteur planted a bomb in his vehicle. It went off early, and Budanov walked away unhurt.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy named him head of the directorate in August 2020. Then came the full-scale invasion of February 24, 2022. Reuters said his remit grew to cover prisoner exchanges, a body coordinating the treatment of prisoners of war, and a role in talks over a Black Sea blockade. He also visited troops in the east. By February 2023, at 37, he held the two-star rank of major general, which Reuters noted is usually reserved for far older officers in Western armies.
A guarded public voice
Budanov rarely explains what Ukraine does inside Russia. Reuters described his comments on suspected Ukrainian operations there as cryptic. On strategy he has been blunter. In a June interview with Reuters he said: “The strategy is very simple. Stabilise the situation.” Equipment and forces would follow, he said, then a counteroffensive “to return all our territory.”
By the time the Globe and Mail profiled him in 2024, he was a lieutenant-general aged 38. He conceded that Ukrainian forces were losing ground along the 1,200-kilometer front line and blamed the February fall of Avdiivka on ammunition shortages. “If we do not have ammunition, it is quite clear that our problems will increase,” he said.
His units were not confined to Ukrainian territory. Special forces under his command took part in a January clash in Sudan, fighting alongside government troops against rebels backed by the Wagner Group. The directorate also works with Russian armed opposition groups, among them the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, which have mounted cross-border raids. His description of the arrangement ran to four words: “They help us, we help them.”
Budanov did not expect the broader Ukrainian army to go on the attack in 2024, but his own people would. “Our units that I’m in charge of, we don’t like defensive actions,” he said. Keeping high-quality specialists on the defensive, in his words, “is too expensive.”
Surviving the targets on his back
His spokesperson told the Globe and Mail that Budanov has survived at least 10 assassination attempts. In November his wife Marianna was hospitalized after a poisoning, an attack the paper said was likely aimed at him. Asked about the danger, he answered: “As you can see, I’m still here.”
He also takes part in dangerous missions himself, a habit his subordinates respect. “If I give tasks to people, I have to be responsible for this,” he told the paper.
Sources
- Factbox-Who is Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine's potential next defence minister?
- As Ukraine Loses Ground, Its Military Intelligence Chief Remains a Figure of Stability and a Thorn in Russia's Side
