Kiev – The thirty-six year old general Kyrylo Budanovwho commands military intelligence and is considered tough, climbs another step in the president’s confidence Zelensky and emerges unscathed from the purges ordered by the president – which hit many pieces of the security apparatus but not him and his people. Yesterday the president appointed Budanov as head of the presidential intelligence commission, a body created in 2020 by Zelensky himself that deals with the planning, management and control of Ukrainian intelligence agencies. The general replaces Ruslan Demchenko, who was also removed from his role as deputy on the National Security Council. Demchenko is suspected of not doing enough against Russian moles infiltrating Ukraine or even of being a Russian mole himself. Eight days ago Zelensky removed for the same unofficially declared reason – not doing enough against Russian intelligence operations – the chief of secret services Ivan Bakanov, who was also his childhood friend and was considered his most trusted ally. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Minister from abroad Lavrov threatens Zelensky and explains that Russia’s goal is “to help the Ukrainians get rid of its unacceptable regime”.
For years Demchenko had attracted accusations in the media for his possible collusion with the Russians. In 2010 he lobbyisted for the so-called Kharkiv Accords, which allowed the Russian Black Sea Fleet to use Ukrainian Navy bases in Crimea – and this gave the Russians a huge head start during the surprise occupation in 2014. His name was also linked, without evidence, to the failure of some important operations, such as the death of a team of seven Ukrainian military intelligence operators – the one led by Budanov – which was in charge of hunting down separatist leaders in the Donbass. .
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The most spectacular betrayal that is accused of Demchenko dates back to July 2020. Ukrainian military intelligence had worked for months on an undercover mission to capture dozens of Russian mercenaries abroad in one fell swoop and take them to Ukraine. The plan was ingenious. The Ukrainians had created a bogus contractor company in Belarus that promised to hire mercenaries for good earnings. Then they selected the ones they considered most interesting, because they had fought in the Donbass on the side of the Russians, and with the excuse of taking them to the Middle East they had bought air tickets for them from Minsk in Belarus to Istanbul in Turkey. The end of the plan was this: the plane would pass through Ukraine’s airspace for twenty-eight minutes, during that time it would be landed under a pretext – a bomb on board – at the Kiev airport and the Russian mercenaries would be arrested. . However, the Belarusian authorities had been warned and had sent special forces to arrest Russian mercenaries in their hotel rooms. For two years now it has been said that they have been warned by a pro-Russian mole within the Zelensky government and that this mole is Demchenko. There is no evidence, it is a voice that is part of the sabbath of accusations and counter-accusations that has been shaking Ukrainian politics for years, but the story helps to frame the character.
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Zelensky also sent the head of the Special Forces Command, the general Grigory Galagan, another childhood friend of his, to serve as Deputy of the Special Operations Center of the secret services – those commanded by Bakanov, until his removal nine days ago. It doesn’t feel like a removal, it looks more like a trustworthy assignment. And in place of him at the head of the Special Forces Command has placed Viktor Khorenko, who comes from military intelligence: a man from Budanov. The head of Ukrainian military intelligence becomes step by step more and more influential. Moreover, he is not suspected of contacts with Russian intelligence because in 2019 he escaped a Russian attack in Kiev which was intended to eliminate him. Perhaps this is why in his office he keeps a picture of an owl, the symbol of his agency, which grabs a bat, the symbol of Russian services.