The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, Major-General Kyrylo Budanov, has admitted that several Kremlin propagandists have been assassinated since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Budanov also said that Ukraine wanted to establish a demilitarised border zone up to 60 miles inside Russia to reduce the chances of future attacks, The Times reports.
When asked whether Ukrainian security services had killed Russian propagandists, Budanov, 37, said: ‘We’ve already successfully targeted quite a few people. There have been well-publicised cases everyone knows about, thanks to the media coverage.’
Several prominent pro-war figures have been killed or wounded by explosives In Russia since the start of the invasion on February 24 last year.
On May 6, Pro-Kremlin ideologist Zakhar Prilepin, 47, was left with multiple injuries after a car bomb attack.
When asked whether Ukrainian security services had killed Russian propagandists, Major-General Kyrylo Budanov (pictured), 37, said: ‘We’ve already successfully targeted quite a few people. There have been well-publicised cases everyone knows about, thanks to the media coverage’
The Russian writer and pro-war blogger’s vehicle was blown up in village in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region. He suffered fractures but his driver was killed in the incident.
Russian investigators noted that they were questioning Alexander Permyakov, whom they accused of working with Ukrainian intelligence.
Vladlen Tatarsky, 40, a military blogger with close ties to Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed by explosives handed to him at a public talk he was giving in a St. Petersburg cafe on April 2.
Later that month, a Russian court denied bail to Darya Trepova, 26, who was charged with terrorism over the bomb attack that killed Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin.
Prosecutors accused Trepova of killing Tatarsky by presenting him with an explosive device concealed within a statuette at the event.
Investigators said she was working on behalf of a pro-Ukrainian group with connections to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny – claims rejected by Navalny’s associates and Kyiv – and charged her with terrorist offences.
The Russian internal affairs ministry said yesterday that an arrest warrant had been issued for Yuriy Denisov, a Ukrainian citizen they claim surveilled Tatarsky for two months from an apartment close to his home.
It alleged that he had made his way over from Latvia under instruction from the ‘Ukrainian special services’.
Vladlen Tatarsky (pictured), 40, a military blogger and an acolyte of the Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed by explosives handed to him at a public talk he was giving in a St. Petersburg cafe on April 2
In August last year Darya Dugina, 29, the daughter of a close ally of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was killed by a car bomb on a road outside Moscow.
It is thought her father, the Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, who is known as ‘Putin’s brain’, may have been the intended target.
Budanov claimed that drone strikes that hit the Kremlin on May 3, apparently with the aim of killing Putin, were a result of ‘Russian aggression’.
On Different People, a Ukrainian YouTube channel, Budanov said that recent acts of sabotage inside Russian territory, attacks on oil and gas infrastructure close to the Ukrainian border and the derailment of a cargo train, were perpetrated ‘almost 100 per cent by citizens of the Russian Federation’.
In another interview with a YouTube channel called Island, Budanov said he had ‘a minority of Russians’ co-operating with his Ukrainian military intelligence agency, the GUR.
He said they had ‘patriotic reasons’ for carrying out the acts and were ‘ready to change Russia’.
Budanov said that although Putin was a legitimate target, Ukraine was not trying to kill him.
In August last year Darya Dugina (pictured right), 29, the daughter of a close ally of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was killed by a car bomb on a road outside Moscow. It is thought her father, the Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin (pictured left), who is known as ‘Putin’s brain’, may have been the intended target
He said his agents would keep setting their sights on Russians who committed war crimes against Ukraine.
He said: ‘These cases have happened and will continue.
‘Such people will receive a well-deserved punishment, and the appropriate punishment can only be liquidation and I will implement it.’
Budanov blamed Moscow’s increasingly viscous tactics in Ukraine on Russian propagandists, where Putin was placed in a situation where he would not be able to come out of the other side alive.
He said: ‘[The Kremlin] have invested so much in this propaganda machine that it began to influence them in the end.’
Budanov added that Russia’s business elite was opposed to the invasion and sought ways to bring it to a close.
He argued that if the Russians managed to bring Putin’s reign to an end, Ukraine would still have to set up a demilitarised zone 60 miles inside Russian territory to avoid future conflict.
He added: ‘This should be our goal. If they are not going to attack and don’t decide they want revenge in a couple of years, this shouldn’t be an issue.’
