Ukraine surprises “incompetence”
Intelligence chief blasphemes about Russian military
04/17/2022, 9:08 p.m
After the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kyiv region, the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service can hardly conceal his astonishment. He wonders “how incompetent and negligent” the Moscow military leadership planned and carried out the operation.
Almost two months after the start of the Russian invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans have not changed. “The aim of the military aggression has remained the same: this is an operation to destroy statehood in Ukraine. Ukraine should cease to exist as a state,” Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, told Der Spiegel.
When asked why Russia decided to withdraw its troops from the Kiev region altogether, Budanov replied: “They didn’t just withdraw – we drove them out of the Kyiv region. It started when we recaptured the city of Irpin. This threatened to cut their forces in two in the Kiev region.”
He is not surprised at the failure of the original Russian plan to conquer Kyiv – but he is surprised at something else: “How incompetent and negligent the Russian commanders approached the implementation of such a large operation. If they really believed that they finished in three days – and from our knowledge they were adamant about it – then the Russian leadership has to ask itself how competent its generals are.”
The major general, who currently sees the main fighting between Kharkov and Mykolaiv, repeated the Ukrainian government’s demand for weapons from Germany: “We need artillery systems – the German army is particularly strong in this. And unfortunately we need tanks because we have suffered very large losses in armored had vehicles.” The Ukrainian army wants to use the weapons to liberate the occupied territories – including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Budanov doesn’t see a problem with training Ukrainian soldiers on the Leopard tank, for example: “We’ll learn that quickly. With all due respect, that’s not high-level mathematics.”