Many in the leadership of the Russian Federation came to understand that “something went wrong” in the war against Ukraine.
About this in an interview with the Ukrainian service “Voice of America” published on February 27, said the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kirill Budanov.
He noted that the Russian Federation cannot afford “to admit that it will lose.”
“Is Russia unanimous, let’s say, on the issue of continuing hostilities? The answer will be: no. Not unanimous. As for the top state leadership. Many have come to understand that something is wrong,” Budanov noted. “Opinions are divided. This cannot be called a split. And there are not so many people in the leadership, I emphasize, who are in favor of the war to the end, and so on. Most of the people who are in favor of this, let’s say, behind this desire, they have a banal fear of responsibility Because there are a certain number of people who will not be able to say that “it was somehow decided without us that it was not us.” There are very few of them, by the way.”
According to the head of Ukrainian intelligence, in the Russian Federation “everyone is waiting for a certain moment when that tower of the Kremlin, which stands for an unambiguous war, figuratively speaking, hits the wall and admits that, well, it’s not going – it’s a dead end.”
At the same time, Budanov reiterated that the result of the war would definitely be the return of all the borders of Ukraine of the 1991 model.
“This is the position of the president and the entire civilized society. Otherwise, there is simply no way out. No other option is real. Because Ukraine will not stop, and this will not allow Russia to stop its military operations. That is, a return, let’s say, to those recognized by the entire world community rules, international norms,” the head of the GUR emphasized.
According to Budanov, Russia is not ready for long-term hostilities – their resources are quite limited.
Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In fact, the Russian Federation unleashed a war against Ukraine in 2014, when it occupied Crimea and part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In April 2022, the Ukrainian Defense Forces expelled the occupiers from the northern regions of Ukraine, de-occupied part of the Kherson, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions in the fall. The most intense fighting is taking place this winter in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly stated that they are pursuing the goal of de-occupying all Ukrainian territories seized since 2014, including Crimea. President Volodymyr Zelensky did not rule out the liberation of the peninsula by non-military means.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to seize the entire territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine by March 2023. The Russian Federation will not succeed in this, they emphasized in intelligence. Budanov noted that the quality of Russia’s “big offensive” in eastern Ukraine is such that not everyone even notices it.
In early January 2023, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate stated that Ukraine was planning a serious counteroffensive in the spring, in March the battles would be “the hottest”.
“Spring is the best time to resume the offensive for all sides. We understand that they will be ready to start it, and we, of course, must be ready to start,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on January 13 in an interview with the BBC.
According to Russian journalist Yulia Latynina, Putin could face the prospect of threats to his power in Russia amid a failed invasion of Ukraine.
