Sending Ukraine's Chief Intelligence Officer to a Hospital in Germany Is 'Just Putin's Propaganda'

Major General Budanov, pictured in February, has become a key target for Russia. Photo: Laurent Van der Stock for Le Monde/Getty Images

Ukraine dismissed Russian claims that its military intelligence chief was wounded in a missile attack, calling it «Putin's propaganda.»

Thursday Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Major General Kirill Budanov was wounded in an attack on his office in Kiev last month.

The report said Mr. Budanov, one of Zelenskiy's closest officials who is said to be responsible for the attacks on Russian soil, is in critical condition and is being treated in a foreign hospital.

His spokesman Andrey Yusov said there was no need to respond to disinformation, according to local media reports.

A second Ukrainian source told the Telegraph that the statement was «fake».

Stigmatized by Russia as a «terrorist»

Major General Budanov was targeted by Russia, where he was branded a «terrorist» for his role in organizing alleged Ukrainian sabotage behind enemy lines and in Russia.

In April, a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for the intelligence chief for crimes related to terrorism and arms smuggling.

The Directorate of the Main Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine became the target on May 29 as a result of a rocket attack on Kiev.

The impact footage showed that the building, which received the nickname “ Island», was damaged, but not affected by a direct hit.

At that time, Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Anna Malyar said that Russia was spreading fake news about the deaths of Major General Budanov and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny.

Lieutenant General Zaluzhny is alive and well after Russia claimed to have killed him. Minister of June 11, which was not timestamped.

In the video, Major General Budanov sits silently in his office for half a minute with the caption: «Plans love silence.»

No evidence of Budanov's death

Russian tabloid newspapers and pro-Kremlin military bloggers have not been reporting on his alleged death for several weeks , without providing any real evidence.

In its report, RIA Novosti says that the head of Ukrainian intelligence was injured when a missile hit a building next to his office, and then flew to a Polish air base, and then by an American plane to Ramstein military base in Germany for treatment.

Major General Budanov was reportedly transferred in critical condition to a military hospital in Berlin.

Telegraph's analysis of the alleged flight shows that he took off from Ramstein in the opposite direction of the German capital before his trackers were turned off.

Russian military bloggers on messaging app Telegram also described the RIA report as questionable after the publication was also incorrect announced the death of General Zaluzhny.