Ukraine’s intelligence chief: Putin has a number of illnesses, but he still has a few more years left
OLENA ROSHCHINA — TUESDAY, 24 MAY 2022, 10:36 AM
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin could have several more years to live despite suffering from serious illnesses, including cancer.
Source: Kyrylo Budanov in an interview for Ukrainska Pravda
Quote: "Yes, we fully confirm this information (that Putin has cancer - ed.). He has several serious illnesses, one of which is cancer. But it’s not worth hoping that Putin will die tomorrow. He still has at least a few years left. Whether we like it or not, that’s the truth."
Details: Budanov agreed that Putin is confused, but was non-committal in describing his psycho-emotional state.
Quote: "We can do a lot of debating here about what sort of state a dictator must be in to think that in three days he would seize the whole country and raise the Russian flag on the President’s Office in Kyiv. And who three months in, while proclaiming that he has the second-greatest (and sometimes the best) army in the world, cannot cope with, in his words, ‘the backward non-state of Ukraine’.
That’s his rhetoric. What sort of state must he be in?"
Background:
- In April, investigative journalists reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin is accompanied on trips by ten doctors, including cancer specialist Yevgeny Selivanov, who deals with thyroid problems.
- In early May, British tabloid The Sun claimed that the 69-year-old Putin is being prepared for surgery, and that Putin will apparently transfer power to the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, for the duration of his surgical intervention and recovery.
- Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said that Vladimir Putin is seriously ill with cancer, and there may be a coup in Russia.
· On 24 May, the Russian news website Meduza reported that after 3 months of the war with Ukraine, Putin has turned both the "war party" and those who want peace against him – and the Kremlin allegedly hopes that he will leave and choose a successor "in the near future".