Ukrainian military intelligence has made repeated attempts on the life of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Kyrylo Budanov, the director of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.
In an interview with Ukrainian independent news outlet New Voice on Saturday, Budanov revealed, “There have been assassination attempts, but, as you can see, they haven’t been successful so far,” without providing further details.
The interview was published just hours before US presidential candidate Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
Despite the revelation, the Kremlin seemed unsurprised by Budanov's comments.
As reported by the Russian news agency TASS, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged “the threat from the regime in Kyiv” as “obvious." He also assured that all necessary measures were in place to ensure Putin’s security.
In the same interview, Budanov warned of a potential large-scale offensive by Russian troops from the north, indicating that the Armed Forces of Ukraine might face significant challenges until the end of the year.
“I have already told the Western press not to expect much good news from me this year, unfortunately,” Budanov said.
In related news, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) arrested two law enforcement officers in May who were allegedly plotting to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The SBU claimed it had uncovered “an agent network” supervised by Russia’s Federal Security Service, planning to assassinate Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials, including SBU head Vasyl Maliuk and Budanov himself.
