Crimeans should help Ukrainian forces, collaborators should leave – Ukraine’s intelligence chief

Head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, said this in an interview with Radio Liberty.

According to him, there is a Ukrainian-oriented population in Crimea that is actually waiting for a return to Ukraine, in particular, the legitimate government and the status of an autonomous republic. At the same time, there are also traitors who have done everything to ensure that Crimea has been occupied since 2014, as well as Russian citizens from the far regions of the Russian Federation have settled there.

"The general mood in Crimea is that the war has come to them. Everyone dreams about how it will be," Budanov said.

In addition, the head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said that another surge in business exits is expected in Crimea. Most of the businesses are being moved deeper into the Russian Federation by traitors of Ukraine, because they understand that if the situation changes, everything will be taken away from them.

"I would like to say to the Crimeans that we need to do everything to bring the moment of returning home closer. There is no need to be afraid of it. All these fairy tales that the Russian authorities have been brainwashing people with have nothing to do with reality. Those who have done something stupid should leave, and those who are waiting should prepare. And do everything to help Ukrainian intelligence first, and then when the troops are ready to go into the open. In order to make it happen as quickly and as bloodlessly as possible," the Budanov addressed the population of Crimea.

According to him, there are many Ukrainian informants, with 30-40% of them will perform certain actions on command.

The Defense Intelligence cooperates with the Atesh and Yellow Ribbon movements in Crimea

According to Budanov, such movements are just emerging. At the same time, they are not as powerful as Ukraine would like them to be.

"But it's great, and the most important thing is that they exist. It means that there are people who understand that this is not a hopeless situation. They are raising the stakes and betting their lives, because Russia is not Ukraine, where they can simply kill you for such things. But people take risks and understand why they are doing it. These are heroic people," the intelligence chief said.

Budanov also added that the intelligence service cooperates with civil resistance movements.

Naval drones are an effective way for deterrence 

Budanov noted that, for obvious reasons, it is impossible to say how many of these drones Ukraine has. Instead, he said that it is a very effective weapon.

Russia manages to destroy 60-70% of maritime drones, but, according to the intelligence chief, the problem for the Russians is the remaining 30%.

"For example, when the marine scooters entered Sevastopol Bay, the drones were destroyed on the approach to the Admiral Sen frigate. The operation seemed to be a failure, but since the drone was destroyed about 100 metres from the ship, the blast wave and debris completely damaged its electronic equipment, hydroacoustic and antenna systems. It took 3.5 months to repair the dock, so it was out of commission for a certain period of time," Budanov said.

He stressed that naval drones are an effective deterrent weapon. They cannot be used to attack, but they have succeeded in paralyzing the fleet.

The Defense Ministry intelligence chief also said that Russian ships do not sail north of Sevastopol at all - they hide in the southeast.

"The Black Sea Fleet has always been the weakest, and over the past 30 years it has degraded very seriously. The ships cannot go anywhere. They have left the northern and western parts of the sea," Budanov said.

Budanov on the strikes on the Crimea bridge and the Russian smokescreen

The head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine stressed that the missiles fired recently had a different target, not the Crimea bridge. However, four Russian anti-aircraft missiles were launched to intercept it and, having slightly hit it, knocked it off course.

"The damage from the munition that was used was quite insignificant, because the munition fired went a little further and did not hit the bridge. Since the Russian forces used four anti-aircraft missiles to hit our object, they slightly threw it off course and it eventually hit the Crimea bridge. But this was nothing compared to what the Russians got when they used smoke. The local population then panicked. So, in fact, they punished themselves," Budanov said.

He also added that the new floating boom barriers will make the work more difficult, but not impossible.

In addition, the likely destruction of the Crimea bridge will slow down Russians' logistics. 

However, Budanov clarified that it is not the Crimea bridge itself that is important for logistics, but the railway bridge next to it. Instead, since Soviet times, there have been ferry crossings, which will not be fast, but the Russian forces will still be able to replenish supplies.

Also in the interview, Budanov said that mobilization in Russia has not stopped, and the Russian authorities are considering drafting 450,000 people to fight in Ukraine.