The head of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, has said in an interview with Yahoo News that Russia has no potential for a large-scale offensive and is trying to accumulate a certain stockpile of missiles to disrupt the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
"As of today, Russia has no military, economic or political potential to create another attempt for a serious offensive anywhere in Ukraine," he said. "Besides that, it is completely capable of waging serious defensive operations, and this is the very problem we are about to face," referring to Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive.
He also compared Russian mercenaries to its regular army. He noted that the Wagner PMC's men are much better trained. Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin uses the huge losses of his mercenaries in the war to conduct his own political campaign.
"His political future is directly linked to his physical survival because there are too many forces in the Russian Federation who want to eliminate him. He obviously will try to defend himself because for him it’s not even an issue of exile or prison; it’s an issue of life and death," Budanov said.
Asked about allegations about Ukrainian special services' involvement in the assassination of Russian public supporters of the war against Ukraine, Budanov said: "Don't continue with that topic. All I will comment on is that we've been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine."