No light enters the office of Lieutenant General Kirill Budanov, commander of Ukrainian military spies. The walls are fortified, the windows reinforced with sandbags, and the curtains drawn.
As the head of the Defense Ministry's General Intelligence Directorate (GUR), Budanov (38) masterminded Ukraine's secret war against Russia and became one of the most celebrated figures in Kiev's struggle. He survived 10 known assassination attempts and mostly lives in an office on the outskirts of the capital, surrounded by patriotic art and war memorabilia on the walls.
Budanov's job is to carry out attacks behind enemy lines in Russian-occupied territory and in Russia itself. However, he rarely takes credit for them, leaving Moscow and the rest of the world guessing about his agency's reach and capabilities.
In his department's latest ventures this week, drones reached as far as St. Petersburg, hit an oil terminal and targeted a gunpowder factory and oil storage facility in the Bryansk region, north of the Ukrainian border.
That brazen tactic sometimes angers Ukraine's Western allies. Some fear that it will provoke a brutal and possibly even nuclear response from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Budanova plays down such concerns and vows to continue to operate deep inside Russia to sabotage Putin's war machine.
"We do not foresee any drastic changes in the near future. Everything we have done so far, we will continue to do," said Budanov.
He knows that this will be a trying year for Ukraine, which has been fighting against Russia for more than a decade.
"The claim that everything is fine is not true, and that everything is a disaster - it is also not true," Budanov answered when asked about Ukraine's much-vaunted counter-offensive last year, which failed to achieve its goals.
Ukraine will still manage to keep Putin at bay, predicts Budanov and points out that it has already been proven that "the whole legend of Russian power is a soap bubble."
The former special forces soldier, who fought in the Donbass in 2014, himself took part in covert missions, including those in the occupied Crimean peninsula. He has scars all over his body: shrapnel from an anti-personnel mine once hit him near the heart and almost killed him; he broke his neck and back and was shot in the arm.
Budanova plays down Western allies' concerns that strikes deep inside Russian territory could lead to a dangerous escalation and vows to continue to act to sabotage Putin's war machine
In 2020, President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed him to head the GUR. Its covert operations, which the Kremlin blamed on GUR for the Crimean bridge explosion in October 2022, revitalized the entire agency, which had long been second fiddle to Ukraine's much larger internal security service, the SBU.
Because of this, Budanov enjoys an almost cult status among Ukrainians, who share memes of his image on social media when military equipment explodes in Russia or areas under Russian control.
However, that too has its price. When the head of GUR does go out, he is accompanied by bodyguards and intelligence agents. Of the many attempts to assassinate him - which he describes as "nothing special" - the most critical was in 2019, when a bomb placed under his vehicle exploded prematurely. He was not injured at the time.
His wife Marijana Budanova was less fortunate when she was poisoned with heavy metals in November, along with several GUR officials. "She is taking therapy, now she feels better," said Budanov. He refused to clarify whether he or his wife were the target of the poisoning.
Budanov was reluctant to provide an assessment of Ukraine's current military operations, leaving that to the Ukrainian Army General Staff.
However, he warned: "It is not even conceivable that we can do without mobilization." The lack of manpower is palpable."
Zelenskiy said military commanders had asked him to mobilize about 400.000 to 500.000 new soldiers to replace those killed or wounded and provide rest for those involved in the most intense fighting.
Budanov predicted a year ago that after the successful counter-offensive in 2022, which liberated most of the Kharkiv and Kherson regions, Ukrainian forces would advance all the way to Crimea.
Ukrainian units were never able to decisively break through the heavily fortified Russian defenses: the front line remained almost the same as a year ago. But Budanov claims that he did not make a mistake.
“Although the original plans suggested somewhat otherwise, we kept our promise. Our units entered Crimea several times this summer," Budanov said, referring to his commandos who infiltrated the peninsula to carry out attacks on Russian bases.
North Korea is currently Russia's largest arms supplier. They delivered a significant amount of artillery ammunition. This allowed Russia to breathe a little. Without their help, the situation would have been disastrous
Speaking about the production of weapons, Budanov said that Russia consumes more weapons and ammunition than it can produce, and that it also has problems with quality control: "This is precisely what explains Russia's search for weapons in other countries."
North Korea is currently Russia's biggest arms supplier, Budanov said: “They have delivered a significant amount of artillery ammunition. This allowed Russia to breathe a little. Without their help, the situation would be catastrophic".
However, Russia is reluctant to rely on outside help. "It was always beneath their honor, it is undignified," explained Budanov.
Another challenge Russia faces is manpower. Moscow is losing more soldiers than it can recruit, Budanov believes. His aide Vadim Skibicki said that currently around 1000 to 1100 people join the Russian army every day, either through mobilization or voluntarily.
"Wagner exists"
Where mobilization fails, mercenary groups help fill the ranks, Budanov points out, referring to the Wagner private army, founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late Russian restaurateur turned wartime leader.
This leads Budanov to what he is well known for: making dramatic claims that are almost impossible to verify.
"Vagner exists," Budanov said, dismissing reports that he had been disbanded. "And speaking of Prigozhin, I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions," he said of his death in a plane crash last year - an apparent assassination that the West believes was ordered by Putin.
The Kremlin has denied involvement and said DNA proves Prigozhin died. But his body was never seen in public.
"I am not saying that he is not dead or that he is dead," said Budanov: "I am saying that there is not a single proof that he is dead."
Budanov's other favorite preoccupation is Putin's health. In the past, he has claimed that the Russian president has cancer and says that he regularly sees Putin "clones" on television.
Asked for evidence, Budanov said that his analysts study Putin's "physiognomy" - earlobes, the distance between the eyebrows and the like.
“It's not that hard. You can easily do it yourself,” Budanov added, shrugging his shoulders as if to say that Putin's doppelgangers were an obvious hoax.
Finally returning to the topic of war, Budanov refused to make any bold predictions for 2024: "I hope our success will be greater than theirs."
Prepared by: A. Š.
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