The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence believes that, if “the Russians will throw all their strengths in the battle”, they no longer have “offensive potential”. He deciphers the distortion of information in Russia, and tells why Moscow “will be forced to withdraw his troops from Ukraine”.
Interview by Rémy Ourdan (Kiev, Special Envoy )
General Kyrylo Boudanov, 37, head of the Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), receives MO12345lemonde in a building of his headquarters, in Kiev. On the walls of his office, emblems, military paintings, and a table of medals. On the ground, a heap of rocket launchers, automatic rifles and handguns, “Russian weapons”, he says, trophies taken from the enemy by the units he commands. Faced with him, the TV screen displays a Google Earth card from the city of Moscow. “Their priority target was kyiv. Why wouldn’t I look at the Moscow card?”, He smiles.
Since his release from the Odessa Military Academy in 2007, Kyrylo Boudanov served in the Gur special forces as well as in external intelligence services. Since the 2014 Russian-Ukrainian war, he has been injured several times in secret operations, still classified to date. He underwent various assassination attempts, including a bomb attack against his car. In 2020, the young general of division was appointed director of the GUR by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
A year after the Russian invasion in Ukraine, how would you describe the current state of the war?
If I had a precise answer to this essential question, life would be easier … Let’s say that I believe that we are approaching the end of the war.
how do you imagine End of war?
It is only possible with the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine in its internationally recognized borders of 1991. Any other option is not acceptable to us. Any territorial concession could only lead to a new conflict later.
A battle rages in Donbass, in the east of the country. Do you think the current Russian offensive has a chance of success?
They won’t defeat. Conquering the provinces of Donetsk and Louhansk has been the objective of the Russians for a year, and they have failed so far. And even if we only mention Bakhmout, which they have been attacking since July and which they say all the time that they have “almost control”, today in February, they are still trying to conquer.
The reality is that after a year of war, Russia no longer has the army that it had at the beginning. Many Russian units are in their second wave, even their third wave of soldiers, who obviously do not have the same quality as the initial unit. My logic is very simple: if the first unit failed to accomplish its mission, it is not realistic that the second or third component of a unit has the slightest success.
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