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Russia has deployed a new military formation of about 15,000 soldiers to fight around Bakhmut. Ukraine's spy chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said the 25th Army was deployed earlier than planned. Budanov said Ukraine is pinning down Putin's forces near Bakhmut to prevent redeployment to the south.Ukraine is pinning down a newly created Russian reserve force near Bakhmut and is confident the 15,000-strong unit will be destroyed, Ukraine's spy chief says.Kyrylo Budanov told The War Zone that Ukraine was pinning down Russian forces in Bakhmut to prevent them from being deployed to other axes where its counteroffensive is pushing forward."The Russians recently...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely not survive in office if he loses the war in Ukraine, the embattled nation’s head of military intelligence claimed this week. “It’s unlikely that he survives it,” said Ukrainian Major General Kyrylo Budanov, who heads up the country’s Defense Intelligence directorate, in an interview with the War Zone. If Russia loses the war, Putin would likely be overthrown, he said, without elaborating on what he meant by “survive.” “Currently, there’s active discussions happening in Russia about who’d be there to replace him,” said Budanov, who did not provide any more specifics. Budanov also told...

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Ministry of Defence, said there was an attempt to kill the Russian president Local media claims Budanev said assassination attempt was two months ago Putin is said to be fearful of an assassination attempt against him since his decision to invade Ukraine Vladimir Putin survived an assassination attempt not long after starting his war in Ukraine, the country's intelligence chief has claimed. Kyrylo Budanov said Putin was 'attacked.. by representatives of the Caucasus' - a region that includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and parts of southern Russia - around two...

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that he’s ready to talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said “we must find an agreement,’’ - but with no ultimatum as a condition. Zelensky told Italian RAI state TV in an interview: “We want the Russian army to leave our land, we aren’t on Russian soil". “We won’t save Putin’s face by paying with our territory. That would be unjust.” In another comment, Zelensky said of the future: “We have to think of the future of Russia. I, as president of Ukraine, say these are our neighbours. There will be other presidents, other...

Ukraine's head of military intelligence says the war with Russia is going so well, that it will reach a turning point by mid-August and be over by the end of the year. It is the most precise and optimistic prediction by a senior Ukrainian official so far. In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Major General Kyrylo Budanov also said a coup to remove Vladimir Putin is already under way in Russia and the Russian leader is seriously ill with cancer. The general's office is dark and stuffed with the paraphernalia of war and espionage, sandbags stacked on its windows,...

<p>A Russian colonel has been run over and killed by his own troops, apparently angry over the devastating losses the unit suffered in combat, a Western security official said during a briefing to reporters on Friday.</p><p>The official said the incident occured in Russia’s 37th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade that had been fighting outside Kyiv.</p>