With his impassive demeanor in all circumstances, he regularly inspires photo diversions on social networks. On one of them, supposed to represent a range of emotions ranging from joy to anger, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, always wears the same inscrutable expression that we know from many photos. Behind this somewhat taciturn image, which he has made his trademark, hides a formidable spymaster, who has become one of the major figures in the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion launched more than a year and a half ago.
“He is praised for his competence by the entire intelligence community,” confides Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Ukrainian Defense Minister from 2019 to 2020, who knows him personally. His main strength is his results: he does not have afraid of the Russians and does not hesitate to plan very daring operations.” The FSB, the Russian intelligence service, thus attributes to him the organization of the resounding attack against the Crimean bridge in October 2022. Following which, six months later, a Moscow court issues an arrest warrant against him for creating a terrorist organization and attempting to commit an act of terrorism.
“You know how long I’ve been working, and it was a little embarrassing that no decision had been made about me. I’m happy. It’s a good indicator of our work, and I promise to work again better,” reacted immediately, not without irony, the 37-year-old man. Among his other feats of arms, the alleged elimination of several prominent pro-Kremlin propagandists in Russia. “We have already succeeded in targeting a certain number of people,” he said last May on this subject. A month earlier, an explosion in a St. Petersburg cafe killed the famous pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarski – kyiv then denied any involvement.
Priority target for the Russians
His brilliant moves have placed him in Moscow’s crosshairs. In 2019, he narrowly escaped a car bomb attack, the explosion having triggered prematurely. In mid-June this year, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti claimed that he had been seriously injured in a strike against his offices two weeks earlier – the Ukrainians denied this, with video support. “It is probably one of the priority targets for the Russians,” notes Olivier Mas, former DGSE executive. “During a war, military intelligence, which can considerably improve the effectiveness of operations on the ground, is vital.”
Born in Kiev in 1986, Boudanov graduated from the Odessa Land Forces Institute in 2007. After rising through the ranks and operating for several years in eastern Ukraine as a special forces agent following of the Russian invasion of 2014, he was appointed by Volodymyr Zelensky as head of Ukrainian military intelligence in August 2020, at the age of 34 – becoming the youngest officer to hold this position. “His profile contrasts enormously with his Russian counterparts, underlines General (2S) Jérôme Pellistrandi, editor-in-chief of the National Defense Review. Due to his young age, he was not really shaped by Soviet culture.”
“A very good communicator”
Although he likes to cultivate his enigmatic image, the master spy does not shy away from the spotlight, in interviews or on social networks. To celebrate the 31st anniversary of the creation of his service, in September, he filmed himself blowing out candles to the sound of an air strike – a barely veiled threat aimed at the Russians, then regularly targeted by Ukrainian drones. For his own birthday, a few months earlier, in January, he had already taken in picture the dagger pointed at a birthday cake in the shape of a map of Russia, literally ready to be cut.
“He is a very good communicator,” summarizes General Ben Hodges, former commander of the American army in Europe. “It is perhaps unusual for an intelligence officer to be so visible to the public, but the state- Ukrainian major general understood that, in this war, the information domain is as important as the air, land and maritime domains.” In any case, his style seems to hit the mark. “He is very popular today in Ukraine,” says former Ukrainian minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk. “The population appreciates it when new talented figures like him emerge.”
To the point of eventually claiming higher positions? At the start of 2023, the head of the presidential party, Davyd Arakhamia, said he was being approached to replace the then Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, mired in accusations of corruption within his ministry. Ultimately, the latter remained in his post until the beginning of September, and it was MP Roustem Oumerov who took his place when he resigned.
“We can expect that certain military actors will try to capitalize on their popularity to play a political role in the future in Ukraine,” gauges General Pellistrandi. “Will this be the case for Boudanov?” According to Ukrainian media, the spymaster would have in any case enrolled this year in a study program in political science.