Ukrainian spy chief defiant as military grapples with shortages

"The Russians would be very happy to freeze everything how it is now," Ukrainian military intelligence chief Lt.-Gen. Kyrylo Budanov said recently when asked for some insight into current Russian thinking.  

"To have us recognize the territory they've taken as Russian. And they would celebrate their victory," he said in an interview with CBC News at his base in Kyiv on Monday.  

"It will never happen," he added. 

Budanov was speaking the day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in fighting since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. 

It was a rare disclosure of a number and a considerably lower one than that estimated by American officials, who have put it at more than double that.   

"Thirty-one thousand Ukrainian soldiers have died in this war," said Zelenskyy. "Not 300,000 or 150,000, or whatever [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his lying circle are saying. But each of these losses is a great loss for us."

Ukraine is under increasing pressure in the two-year-old conflict after its fall counter-offensive failed to pierce Russian front lines in the south and east of the country. It is struggling to deal with a lack of weapons, lack of soldiers and lack of international aid, according to Ukrainian officials. 

Zelenskyy also told the media that the plans for Ukraine's counter-offensive had found their way to a desk in the Kremlin before it even began.  

"I'm not going to say more than the president," Budanov said when asked about the intelligence leak.  

"We had, let's say, information, evidence, that the plans became known to the Russian federation. It is a serious problem, and we are taking some action."  

At 38, Budanov is the youngest head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence, appointed to the post by Zelensky in 2020 and has already received three stars.  

He began his military career as a special operative and fought against Russian proxy forces in the east after Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.  

A recent report by the New York Times identified Budanov as one of the members of an elite force within the intelligence trained by the CIA in the past. 

Budanov is credited with increasing Ukraine's drone capability, reportedly organizing more than 100 drone strikes on Russian soil and in Russian occupied parts of Ukraine.