‘Difficult situation’ awaits Ukraine in May, says country’s military intelligence chief

Ukraine is likely to face a “difficult situation” from May as Russia employs a “comprehensive operation” against it in the war, the country’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with BBC Ukraine on Monday.

Budanov said that Ukraine would encounter “problems” in a “difficult period” from mid-May and June onwards as Russia sought to make breakthroughs on the frontline and sow discord in Ukrainian society, but stressed that the situation was “not catastrophic”.

Budanov warned that Russia’s intelligence services were conducting a “Maidan-3” operation intended to divide Ukrainian society through the spread of disinformation, and that Russia was “using all possible factors to create social tension” in Ukraine.

Rumours of a second Russian attempt to capture Kyiv, however, were “baseless” and there was “absolutely no threat” of Russia taking the Ukrainian capital, Budanov said. The former head of the country’s Azov Brigade Maksym Zhorin had previously warned of the “threat of a new Russian advance on Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa”.

Budanov also confirmed that Ukraine was behind the downing of a Russian Tupolev-22M3 long-range bomber over the North Caucasus on Friday, saying that Ukrainian forces had hit the plane from over 300 km away after a period of “fruitful and long” preparation work. Russia’s Defence Ministry had previously said that the bomber had crashed due to a “technical malfunction”.