Situation in Ukraine's east will remain difficult for at least 1 month, but there will be no Armageddon – Ukraine's intelligence chief

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (DIU), predicts that the situation in the east of Ukraine will remain difficult for at least a month, but there will be no Armageddon.

Source: Budanov in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer

Details: Budanov was asked whether Ukrainian troops can stop the current Russian offensive in the east of Ukraine, where Moscow is making small but steady territorial advances.

Quote: "The good news is that no Armageddon will emerge. The bad news is that the situation is quite difficult. It will remain like this for at least one month, and will not become easier."

Details: He said that Ukraine will do everything possible to "minimise the Russian successes". However, when asked whether Ukraine would be able to hold the city of Chasiv Yar, Budanov said: "I will refrain from response".

The DIU head believes that the answer to Russia's superiority in terms of personnel is warfare technology, in which Ukraine has become a world leader, replacing people on the battlefield wherever possible with new versions of drones and electronic warfare.

"Technologies will have quite a significant meaning in this war," Budanov predicts.

He also called himself a "fan" of moving the war to Russian territory with the help of long-range UAVs.

"I have been advocating this since the very first days of the war, saying openly that so long as the war is contained on our territory, it will not affect Russia. That is why since spring 2022, we have started to conduct significant operations on Russian territory, and we will go further the more resources we have for this. And Russia has started to feel it," he said.

In other words, Budanov said, Russian leader Vladimir Putin cannot pretend to his people that this war does not affect them any longer.

"It is still not critical for Russia at this stage, but it has led to the situation when the average citizen in the European part of the Russian Federation for sure knows and feels that the war is ongoing and has experienced some of the explosions himself. It influences, even on a small scale now, their morale," the DIU head said.

He also expressed the opinion that the White House's warning to Kyiv not to strike oil refineries makes no sense, as they are a legitimate military target. The attacks may not be able to turn the tide of the war, the intelligence chief admitted, but he believes they could affect the Russian economy "and psychological state", which in turn "affects the military component". DIU has announced that it considers any Russian military target within a 500-mile range to be fair game.

Budanov said that US authorisation to use US weapons to hit Russian fire sources directly across the border would "ease our lives". At the same time, he added that if Kyiv is allowed to use American weapons "to the whole so-called operational depth in Russia that we can reach, of course, it will be easier for us".

The DIU head also sees no point in peace talks, as "we have no option but to get back what was occupied. Otherwise, the state of war will go on forever".

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