The intelligence services (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine informed the press this Tuesday that they have indications that several people were poisoned at their headquarters in kyiv. The number of possible victims has not been specified although his spokesman, Andrii Yusov, has confirmed on television Suspilne that one of them is Marianna Budanova, wife of Kirilo Budanov, head of the GUR.
GUR sources have indicated in a statement sent to the Ukrainian media that heavy metals have been detected in Budanova’s blood: “These substances are not used in any way either in daily life or in military matters. Her presence could indicate an attempt to poison a particular person,” without specifying whether the target of the possible attack was her or her husband. The GUR has added that the evidence indicates that the poisoning occurred from the ingestion of food. The Budanov couple lives at the GUR headquarters in kyiv.
The GUR has also not specified when Budanova was hospitalized. It has been reported that she remains hospitalized, that the medical treatment has ended and that they are waiting for her evolution. The newspaper Pravda cites other GUR sources who claim that there are more intoxicated people, but in a less serious situation than Budanova. Asked about SuspilneYusov did not want to confirm or deny whether she is the only person who has had to be treated by the health services.
Budanov is one of the most important positions in the circle of President Volodymyr Zelensky. He is a lieutenant general, a veteran of the Donbas war and one of the president’s most trusted soldiers. He is also one of the most popular figures in Ukraine and the main mastermind of Ukrainian sabotage operations in Russian territory and in the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed by the Kremlin in 2014. Yusov claimed last August that Russia has tried to assassinate Budanov on several occasions.
Budanova is a police officer and works as a professor of legal psychology at the National Police Academy, as her husband explained in an interview last September for the military information website. The War Zone: “She has lived with me since the beginning of the invasion [en febrero de 2022]. She is a police officer and for her it is not a problem like it could be for someone else.”
Russian infiltration
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The news comes at a time when Zelensky and his team warn that they have detected an attempt at Russian infiltration into the Ukrainian power establishment. Oleksii Danilov, secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, stated this Monday in the newspaper The Times that Moscow has activated a network of agents in kyiv’s main institutions to destabilize the country and, above all, cause a fracture between Zelensky and his commander in chief, Valeri Zaluzhni.
Zelensky and Zaluzhni visualized their differences for the first time this November. Zaluzhni explained to The Economist that the war was stagnant and that there were no signs of major advances in the next year. The president publicly disavowed his commander-in-chief and relieved senior officials close to Zaluzhni. Mariana Bezuhla, a deputy from Zelensky’s party and a member of the Rada’s defense policy committee, wrote a statement on Sunday in which she demanded the commander-in-chief’s dismissal.
Danilov sparked another controversy by stating in The Times that in the Security Services of Ukraine (the SSU, the secret services directly dependent on the presidency) there are also agents paid by the Kremlin. The SSU reacted with a statement in which it claimed that the British newspaper had misinterpreted Danilov’s words. Zelensky also claimed on November 17 that Russia had launched a plan to generate social instability in Ukraine that would lead to a coup d’état.
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