The Ukrainian spymaster who Putin wants dead
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2023
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Major-General Kyrylo Budanov is the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence - the 37-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise to become the country's youngest head of the organisation. Russia believes that he is lying in a coma in Germany following a missile strike on his headquarters but he’s actually alive and ready to take ‘direct action’ against his enemies.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It began back in May this year when a startling video emerged showing something that nobody |
| 0:12.2 | expected to see in Moscow. |
| 0:14.8 | It would be a pretty remarkable breach of Russian air defenses for a drone like that to fly |
| 0:19.0 | all the way across the country and hit the Kremlin. |
| 0:22.2 | Two drones were seen flying over the Kremlin, the headquarters of the Russian President. |
| 0:27.8 | In minutes, there was a small explosion, nobody was injured. |
| 0:33.4 | And then, a few weeks later, there was another drone attack in Moscow. |
| 0:40.6 | Russian TV says this is the moment that Moscow came under attack from early morning, people |
| 0:46.8 | in and around the Russian capital reported hearing explosions. |
| 0:51.0 | And yesterday Moscow awoke to a fresh round of drone strikes, one narrowly missing Russia's |
| 0:58.4 | defence ministry. |
| 0:59.9 | Russia has accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on Moscow. |
| 1:03.6 | Russia's defence ministry says two drones hit non-residential buildings with one crashing |
| 1:08.2 | close to its headquarters in the city centre. |
| 1:10.9 | No casualties have been reported. |
| 1:18.0 | Although the drone attacks on Moscow feel new, over the past year we have seen Russia being |
| 1:24.2 | directly targeted in other ways too, through assassinations on Russian territory and damage |
| 1:31.7 | to the country's infrastructure. |
| 1:34.1 | Drone sitting in the Kremlin, then blowing up the Kirch bridge linking Russia to Crimea, |
| 1:38.6 | attacks by sea drones on Russian shipping in Sevastopol and several assassinations. |
| 1:47.9 | These attacks have been a blow to Russia and to Russian morale, and the Kremlin are so |
| 1:54.2 | furious about them that they've started a blame game. |
... |
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