Ukraine suspects Russia of the poisoning of the wife of the head of Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), Kyrylo Budanov, a spokesperson for this structure, Andriï Yussov, told AFP.
“This is the main hypothesis,” he said, assuring that it was a deliberate poisoning with heavy metals, “in particular, mercury and arsenic”, and not an accident.
According to Mr. Yussov, it was Marianna Boudanova and not her husband who “was the target”. “It is simply impossible to directly reach the commander (Budanov) in this way,” the spokesperson said.
Ms. Boudanova, who advises Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, was hospitalized “more than a week ago,” Mr. Yussov added. However, it is impossible for the moment to establish the exact date of the poisoning because “the attack may have been prolonged over time”, argued the spokesperson.
He confirmed press reports according to which traces of heavy metals had also been discovered among “several” military intelligence collaborators, without giving further details.
Russia has so far not reacted to these accusations.
Earlier in the day, an intelligence source confirmed to AFP that Mme Boudanova suffered from heavy metal poisoning and was receiving treatment.
Analyzes revealed that she had traces of heavy metals in her body which “are not used in everyday life or in military affairs”.
“Their presence may indicate a deliberate attempt at poisoning,” according to an intelligence source cited by the news site. Babel.
More than ten attempts
“In all likelihood”, the poison was delivered “with the food”, added a source within the police cited by the site Ukraïnska Pravda.
“She felt bad, so (medical) analyzes were done and these showed poisoning,” she assured, affirming that Mme Boudanova felt better and completed “the first stage of treatment”.
Kyrylo Boudanov, 37, has acquired an almost legendary aura since the start of the invasion by occupying this key position.
He has headed the military intelligence department within the Ministry of Defense since 2020, and this structure is considered responsible for several attacks against Russia since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.
The Russian authorities accuse him in particular of having organized the attack in October 2022 which partially destroyed the bridge linking Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow, to Russia.
Kyrylo Boudanov said in August that his wife lived with him “in his work office” and never left him for security reasons since the beginning of the invasion.
“We are always together, 24 hours a day and seven days a week,” explained Marianna Boudanova in an interview with the Ukrainian edition of Elle magazine, published in October 2022.
She said she learned to “control her emotions” well before the invasion, when her husband left for long missions in eastern Ukraine, a region where pro-Russian separatists supported by Moscow took up arms against Kiev in 2014.
Two months earlier, intelligence service spokesperson Andrii Yussov claimed that Mr. Budanov had been targeted by “more than ten” attempted attacks.
Bombs were notably placed in his car in 2019, an operation which was allegedly orchestrated by the Russian security services (FSB), according to the Ukrainian prosecutor general.
Russia has repeatedly been accused of poisoning Kremlin opponents or defectors, both inside and outside its borders, although it has always denied these facts.
In 2018, the highly publicized poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in England sent shock waves through the international community.
In Ukraine, former pro-Western president Viktor Yushchenko claimed that Moscow was behind a dioxin poisoning that targeted him during his campaign in 2004.