The head of Ukrainian military intelligence, who predicted a Russian invasion of Ukraine, predicted that Crimea would be retaken.
In an interview with the Washington Post (WP) on the 31st of last month, Kirillo Budanou, director of military intelligence at the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, predicted that Russia would focus on occupying more land in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine this year. The interview was conducted on the 20th of last month.
“We must do everything to ensure that Crimea can return to Ukraine by summer,” Budanou said. “It all started in Crimea in 2014 and will end there.”
Russia forcibly annexed Crimea in 2014. When asked if Ukrainian forces reaching Crimea might trigger Russia’s use of nuclear weapons, he said: “That’s not true. Crimea will return to us.”
He dismissed the Russian nuclear threat as a “scare tactic” and said, “A nuclear strike would not result in a mere military defeat for Russia, but its collapse. They are well aware of this,” he said.
Budanou also claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin is terminally ill with cancer and that he has several doubles who look alike. He insisted, “It is unknown whether the person sitting there is the real Putin.”
The WP said he opened the rest of the folders he was in with the information he had and showed the exact figure. “There are currently 326,000 Russian troops fighting in Ukraine,” Budanou said.
In response to the WP’s request for another prediction, he said, “It is a victory for Ukraine. I am not talking regarding anything new.”
In Ukrainian politics, Budanou is credited with being the only person who, along with US and British intelligence agencies, correctly warned of Russian plans months in advance. He earned a reputation for accurately predicting the date and time of the Russian invasion, down to the hour.
Russian authorities are pointing to Budanow as the mastermind behind the Crimean Bridge explosion in October last year.
(Seoul = News 1)
