The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Kirill Budanov, for the first time after reports from the Russian media and telegram channels about his serious injury or death, appeared in a telethon at Ukrainian television and said that “everything is fine with him”. Budanov’s words are quoted by RBC Ukraine.
“I take it quite funny and I react the same way. Fakes are fakes to provoke some kind of public reaction. But these are unfinished counterfeits, let’s face it. Yet they understood that everything was fine for me, these people who did this, ”said the head of the GUR.
On the afternoon of June 20, Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova posted on Facebook (owned by Meta*) a photo of herself with Budanov and Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine Matsuda Kuninori . “Not a dummy, all reunion attendees alive and well,” she wrote.
In photographs and television footage, Budanov is shaved. The room where the head of the GUR was during a conversation with the hosts of the telethon resembles his office, which had already been shown by Ukrainian media, Remarks CASS.
June 15, RIA Novosti reported that Budanov was injured in a Russian strike on the GUR building in Kiev on May 29. The agency referred to a source within the Russian security forces, who, in turn, referred to Ukrainian military intelligence sources. The Russian rocket allegedly “flew into the neighboring office with Budanov”.
According to the interlocutor of RIA Novosti, the head of the Ukrainian intelligence services was first evacuated to Poland, then to the Bundeswehr hospital in Berlin, where he is in “serious condition”. At the hospital itself, the agency received information that a person named Kirill Budanov was not being treated by them. The German government suggested that the news about Budanov’s treatment in Berlin was fake.
Andrey Yusov, representative of the GUR of Ukraine, on the day of publication of the note of RIA Novosti declared that Budanov has “excellent health”, “very little free time” and many projects.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on June 16 that Budanov attended a meeting of the military committee. The next day, former Verkhovna Rada deputy Ilya Kiva said, citing a source at the Ukrainian Embassy in Germany, that Budanov had died without regaining consciousness.
Videos with Budanov were released on May 29 – after the Russian missile attack – and June 11, but it is unclear when exactly they were recorded.
Budanov’s June 19 commentary appeared in the Kiev Post newspaper. He said that a “detachment of immortals” had appeared in Ukraine, which would “come into the dreams of the Russian inhabitants at night” and “put them to shame”.
Versions about the state of the head of the GUR of Ukraine Kirill Budanov read here
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