My work won't end with victory: reintegration comes next – Ukraine's Defence Intelligence chief

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, believes that after victory, Ukraine will face many years reintegrating the temporarily occupied territories which have spent nine years engulfed in Russian propaganda [Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk "People’s Republics"].

Source: Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, in an interview with Dmitry Komarov in "A year behind the scenes: the intelligence officer"

Quote: "I’m not going to wrap up all these developments with victory. I’m going to surprise you a little here, but victory won’t bring everything to a stop. A rather difficult stage awaits us, one that will, you might say, last years: the actual reintegration of our territories.

Because I’m sorry, but we’re going to get an extra 3 million people who have lived under Russian propaganda for nine years and now have a completely different perception of the world. It won’t be as easy as it seems."

Details: Budanov noted that victory for Ukraine means a return to the administrative borders of 1991.

At the same time, he suggested that even if Ukraine does return to the borders of 1991, Russia may not capitulate, but change. New states may appear on its territory.

Budanov says the day of victory will be clearly delineated, and then the hard work and a rather long process will continue: "We will have to seriously transform the economy and rethink our vision of the new alliances and unions that will be created."

Quote: "There will be a new security architecture in the world. It won't just concern us. This is a world issue. So there will be quite a lot of work."

Budanov believes that after victory, the model of the state should not be changed in the regions that have been under occupation for a long time: perhaps an "iron hand" will be needed there.

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