General Kirill Budanov, head of Ukrainian intelligence, told newsmen that his group, the GUR, will continue its terrorist campaign against Russians “anywhere on the face of the earth.” The Kremlin has pledged that such attacks will “not be left unanswered.”
Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, was charged with terrorism offenses by a Moscow court last month, and Russian authorities have linked him to a series of sabotage and assassination operations, most recently a foiled plot to murder top Russian officials in Crimea.
Budanov stated in an interview with Yahoo News last month but released earlier this week that what Russia calls “terrorism,” we call “liberation.” When asked if the GUR was involved for the death of Russian journalist and political activist Darya Dugina last year in Moscow, he gave a cryptic response.
“Don’t bring it up again,” he said. “All I’ll say is that we’ve been killing Russians and will continue to kill Russians anywhere on the planet until Ukraine is completely defeated.”
Despite Budanov’s boasts, Washington appears to have the GUR under control. According to recently disclosed Pentagon documents, when Budanov told his subordinates in February to “get ready for mass strikes” on Russian cities, American agents who had been monitoring his contacts intervened to call off the operation.
Since Budanov’s interview with Yahoo, two explosive-laden drones have been shot down above the Kremlin, and a car bomb has gravely injured Russian journalist and activist Zakhar Prilepin. A suspect in the Prilepin blast claimed to Russian authorities that he was employed by an undisclosed Ukrainian intelligence outfit, but Moscow has stated that the US is ultimately responsible for both crimes.
“We know full well that decisions to carry out such terrorist actions are made not in Kiev, but in Washington,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov of the attack on President Vladimir Putin’s office. “Such crimes will not go unpunished,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that the “Kiev regime” will face “severe and unavoidable punishment.”
