By AFP | 2024-01-12

KYIV -- Kyiv's attacks in Russian-annexed Crimea are set to intensify, Ukrainian military spy chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview published January 12.

"In 2023, the first Ukrainian incursions took place in temporarily occupied Crimea," Budanov, 38, told French daily Le Monde. "And this is just the beginning."

Ukraine has also repeatedly targeted Russia's Black Sea Fleet, based in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula.

"The Russians have had to move everything in a hurry to the southeast," Budanov said, adding that Moscow was now trying to set up a naval base on the Black Sea coast of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

The front lines are largely frozen in Ukraine, he acknowledged.

"On both sides, the very intensive use of attack drones has made both Russian and Ukrainian offensives impossible," he said. "Another factor has been the density of minefields, unprecedented since World War II."

Signs of fatigue over the war in Ukraine might be increasing, but Budanov urged the West to keep supporting Kyiv militarily.

"Those who think they are tired of Ukraine abroad will have to court Muscovites when they come to occupy their own territories," he said.

Budanov, who has led Ukraine's HUR military intelligence unit since 2020, accurately predicted that Russia would attack Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

It is not the right time to negotiate with Russia, he said.

"Negotiations begin when one or both parties have an interest," he said. "This is not the case."