The chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov told journalists of Coffe or Die media that Ukraine, with the help of intelligence, including sources in the Kremlin, receives a lot of information about Russiaʼs intentions.
Here are the main theses from Budanovʼs interview:
- One example the Ukrainian military intel chief offered was the recent strike in Berdiyansk that destroyed a Russian Alligator-class landing ship as it sat at a dock. Ukraine hit at the right moment to cause maximum damage, at the same time as fuel trucks and ammunition trucks approached the ship.
- We have made significant progress in cyber intelligence. Aside from information about the Russian military, Ukraine has been able to see the circulation of Russian money very well. We can also see whatʼs going on in the fuel area of Russia. And we also keep track of all the innovations in armaments.
- Just two days into their war, Russia realized things werenʼt going as well as they hoped. So the Russian leadership made a plan for the next 30 and 60 days (so-called D-plus 30 and D-plus 60). We survived the first period, and the Russians failed. As we can see the steps and see what they are doing, we believe that D-plus 60 will be unsuccessful for Russians.
- The Russians are working very primitive. As we can see, the second army in the world is not as powerful as everybody saw it in the beginning. Despite considerable superiority in armaments, despite the complete supremacy in the air, they are suffering considerable losses. Their morale is very low. The military leadership of Russia is seeing their losses, they throw new forces into combat. The commanders donʼt have enough time to plan the operation. So they throw their people for destruction and we destroy them.
- We will liberate all the temporarily occupied territories. But not without more help. First of all, we need the armament support. We need serious armaments, not small arms. We need combat aviation, not the fourth generation. We need very serious air defense systems and anti-missile systems and artillery systems of 155 mm or larger, and fighter jets. We donʼt need poorly outdated aircraft of the fourth generation. Our enemy Russia has most of its combat aviation of the fourth generation plus. Our pilots who operate outdated aviation managed to hit and destroy the generation four-plus aviation. They can be trained and be able to operate generation five. I have no doubt about the skill of Ukraine pilots.
Earlier, Defense Intelligence reported that Russiaʼs oligarchs are suffering from sanctions and want to stop Putin.