Ukrainian spy chief's wife poisoning: Probably attack was aimed at intelligence officers, says Reserve Major Hetman

This was reported by a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war, National Guard Reserve Major Oleksiy Hetman on Espreso TV channel.

"It could have been done by the Russians. It is not a fact that it was a deliberate attempt on Budanov's wife. It is likely that it was an attack on the HUR officers. We can assume that Budanov's wife was hit by accident and that the main target was the employees and possibly Budanov himself, this is one of the versions," he said.

Another version is that the attempt was made directly on the wife of the HUR chief, Hetman said.

"If it was an attempt on the wife of the HUR chief, this is unacceptable according to the rules of intelligence and special services. There are unwritten rules, a code of honor as they say, which such services try to follow. It is possible to hunt a public figure, an employee of the special services. This is understandable, especially in times of war. Attacking a family is unacceptable; you cannot attempt to assassinate wives, husbands, children, and parents. If it was a targeted attack on the wife, it just shows what kind of people and their services they are," he emphasized.

In his opinion, there should be a response from Ukraine for such an attempt.

"I think there should be a response, not to poison Putin's wife, for example, but to kill Putin. We have the right to do this, it is a legitimate goal during the war. After all, he is not just a political figure, he is the commander-in-chief, and we have to attack the entire command structure of their troops. However, it will be difficult to kill Putin, because there are many of his doubles," the analyst summarized.

• On November 28, it became known that Kyrylo Budanov's wife was poisoned. A representative of the HUR, Andriy Yusov, confirmed that she was in hospital, but that her life was not in danger. According to media reports, Marianna Budanova could have been poisoned with mercury and arsenic.

• Stepan Havrysh, First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (2008-2011), believes that organizing the poisoning of Budanov's wife in the context of the successful actions of the HUR is a rather complicated operation.

• The Center for Countering Disinformation published a selection of fakes that the Russian enemy produced on November 28. In particular, Bankova allegedly fears that Budanov and his wife will enter politics.

• The Bellingcat team will conduct its own investigation into the poisoning of the wife of the head of the agency, Kyrylo Budanov, independent of the Main Intelligence Directorate.