At age 37, Kyrylo Budanov is already a two-star general in Ukraine's army and has been the Chief of Intelligence since 2020. He's known for his mordantly funny black humour, unmercifully trolling the Russians on the state of the war and often giving a precise timeline of what will happen, where and when. And he's always right. Next to President Zelensky and General Zaluzhnyi, he's the man the Russians would most like to kill. So the joke of his appearing and not saying anything at all has really struck a chord with Ukrainians.
Source: The New Voice of Ukraine
Ukraine’s top military intelligence officer, Kyrylo Budanov, is known for his cryptic comments — he has frequently dropped hints and clues about the war to tantalize Ukrainians and boggle Russian minds.
But in his latest stunt he has outdone himself by releasing a teaser video in which he says… absolutely nothing at all.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine unveiled the cryptic video on June 11, featuring the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense sitting behind a desk with a neutral expression on his face as the camera slowly zooms in towards him.
The 33-second clip includes a collage of atmospheric sounds, which towards the end seem to suggest the crash of stormy sea waves on a coastline.
A Ukrainian and a Japanese flag can be seen dimly in the background.
“To be continued... Plans love silence,” the captions at the end of the intriguing video read, followed by another close-up shot of the silent Budanov.
The video has become wildly popular in Ukraine, of course.