On Saturday, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed that there had been several attempts at assassinating Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“There have been [attempts to assassinate Putin], but as you can see, they have been unsuccessful so far,” said Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, known as the GUR.
Budanov didn’t offer any details about the alleged assassination attempts. He has previously made similar claims, and other officials in the GUR have threatened that Kyiv was preparing to target the Russian leader.
Last year, Ukrainian drones targeted the Kremlin, and Russia treated the attack as an attempt on Putin’s life. In response to Budanov’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the “security of the president is established at the proper level.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said assassination attempts on Putin are funded with “US money.” She said the US would be better off spending the money on domestic security, pointing to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
After the 2014 coup that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, the US began helping build up and fund Ukrainian intelligence services that have been responsible for attacks inside Russia. The Washington Post reported last year that since 2015, the CIA had spent tens of millions on the GUR and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to turn them into “potent allies against Moscow.”
One former US intelligence official described the GUR as “our little baby.” The report said the SBU and the GUR have been involved in dozens of assassinations against Russian officials in Russian-controlled Ukraine, alleged Ukrainian collaborators, and Russian officials and civilians deep inside Russia, all while maintaining US support.