Kiev’s military intelligence expects Ukraine to win by the end of the year
The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, considers a reconquest of the entire territory occupied by Russia this year to be “quite” possible. There is “only one way to end this war, by restoring the borders” from 1991, the 37-year-old said in an interview with the RBK-Ukrajina news agency on Monday. Otherwise the war cannot be stopped. “Ukraine will never agree to give up any part of its territory.”
The long-awaited Ukrainian spring offensive is still in preparation. “I think that enough territory will be recaptured in this operation,” the intelligence officer said. He did not provide any information on the directions of attack. Currently, the Russo-Ukrainian war would be between 72 and 75 minutes in football terms. He did not dare to predict whether there would be overtime and a penalty shoot-out. “Only God can know that.” At the same time, he ruled out a Russian nuclear strike in the event of a recapture of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.
Ukraine has been repelling a Russian invasion for 14 months. Russia currently occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. Budanov had already warned against the invasion in November 2021.