Opinion | This defiant Ukrainian general has no smile — and surprising remarks on Trump (2024)

Budanov is the dark prince of the Ukraine war. His drop-dead stare has become an icon for Ukrainians — a symbol of bravery and defiance in this third year of conflict with Russia. Ukraine’s NV news outlet calls him the man “without a smile.” A meme that circulates on the internet shows nine identical pictures of his scowling face, labeled “happy,” “angry,” “troubled,” “excited” and so on.

Budanov spoke with me for 90 minutes last month in his forbidding office on what Ukrainians call “the Island,” a derelict string of buildings on a peninsula on the Dnieper River. He was, as always, the voice of resistance — promising to take the fight into Russia with drones and special operations, confirming reports that he’s battling with Wagner mercenaries in Africa and scoffing at a Korea-style negotiated settlement.

With the House of Representatives nearing a final vote on additional military aid to Ukraine, Budanov delivered a clear, emphatic message to the United States: “You should keep helping us, and you should, at last, deliver the assistance we need. We will have a common victory together.”

War always has an element of theater, and Budanov might be this conflict’s most colorful character. He’s just 38, and he’s famously courageous in battle. He fought behind Russian lines between 2014 and 2016 in Donbas and was injured three times, including taking shrapnel in his heart, neck and back. In 2016, he led a raid that killed a lieutenant general from Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB.

There’s a pile of armor and a .50-caliber machine gun heaped next to his desk, and they’re not for show. Budanov travels regularly to the front lines in Bakhmut, Avdiivka, “everywhere,” he said. “Sometimes it’s necessary for me to be with my people to motivate them. I’m not taking excuses for why someone can’t do something. That’s why the task will always be accomplished.”

Budanov predicted that Russia will launch a big offensive starting in June to try to capture all of Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces known as the Donbas region, which Russia has claimed but doesn’t control. The Russians will then focus on the November elections in the United States and the aftermath. “Until the inauguration of your president, they will try to get as much as possible of the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk,” perhaps hoping that a reelected President Donald Trump can ratify their gains.

To counter the Russians, Budanov plans more cross-border attacks by the “Russian volunteers” who operate inside Russia with support from his service, along with more drone attacks. He explained: “We’ve offered a plan aimed at reduction of Russian potential. It encompasses a lot of aspects, like the military industry … critical military targets, their airfields, their command-and-control posts.”

The goal is to show that President Vladimir Putin cannot “protect the population from the war getting into Russia,” he explained. “When you’re sitting, say, in St. Petersburg, and you’re seeing the war only on TV, you will always be supportive. … But people start to get nervous when some facility [is attacked] near their house.”

Budanov scrolled his phone for images from a Telegram channel that show Russian civilians in the town of Belgorod surveying damage to local buildings. The bombs that had caused most of the destruction were Russian S-300 antiaircraft missiles shot at Ukrainian drones, he said, rather than the drones themselves, but the traumatizing effect on the population was the same.

“In reality, the damage done by those [antiaircraft] missiles is a lot higher than the damage that would potentially be done by a drone,” he said.

When I asked if Ukrainian attacks inside Russia would continue, Budanov offered a rare trace of a smile. “I hope so,” he said. A cartoon circulating on the internet shows Putin meeting Budanov in a park and asking if his dog bites. Budanov answers no, and Putin pets the animal. The dog takes a gun and shoots Putin dead.

Budanov’s celebrity in Ukraine stems partly from the fact that he was the only senior leader to warn unequivocally that the Russians were coming before they invaded on Feb. 24, 2022. He led his special forces at Hostomel airport in the early days of the war to help repel a Russian landing there that nearly led to the capture of Kyiv.

The Russians have tried to assassinate Budanov at least 10 times, according to Ukraine’s count, including at least two missile strikes on his headquarters at the Island. A Moscow court issued a warrant for his arrest last year for allegedly plotting to destroy the Kerch Strait bridge. His wife, Marianna, was poisoned by heavy metals, according to Ukrainian reports last year.

Budanov doesn’t appear fazed. If anything, he seems to relish the danger. Some friends worry that he can be reckless. “Kyrylo has succeeded in so many risks, he doesn’t have good risk assessment,” one told me.

As special forces chief, Budanov is always looking for new ways to cause trouble for Putin and his forces. I asked him about rumors that some of his GUR operatives are fighting in Africa against mercenaries of the Wagner militia. “We conduct such operations aimed at reducing Russian military potential, anywhere where it’s possible,” he said. “Why should Africa be an exception?”

For all his panache, Budanov has a clear-eyed assessment of Putin and Russia. “He became a victim of his own propaganda,” Budanov said. “They overheated their society … saying that they’re the most mighty and all-powerful in the world, and he started believing that himself. But it turned out their military is not as powerful as they thought.”

Putin made a “strategic mistake” in launching the war, he said. “But Russians recover fast, and that’s a fact that you should keep in mind. They have proved that dozens of times. We should not underestimate this characteristic.” Putin’s war was supported by over 70 percent of Russians, he said.

How will this war end? Budanov was wary about making predictions. He said he “wouldn’t mind” an eventual breakup of Russia into small pieces. But he cautioned: “In Russian dreams, they have occupied all of Ukraine, and in our dreams, we have a victory parade … into Moscow.” In other words, neither outcome is likely.

“This war will be ongoing while this regime remains in place in Russia,” he said. “Under the next regime, it might change or not, but there will be a window of opportunity.” When I asked about a “Korea solution” through negotiations, he bristled and asked if I wanted Ukraine to become North Korea.

Near the end of our conversation, I asked Budanov if he was worried that if Trump were elected, he might try to impose a settlement. His answer surprised me, but perhaps it underlined what a canny intelligence operator he is. He’s already recruiting a potential asset.

“I have a huge respect for the personality of Trump,” Budanov said. He noted that the former president had attended a military academy, and he lauded his tenacity. “There have been nine instances in his life when he went to the top, fell to the very bottom of life, and went back again.” But as for any Trump peace plan, he said: “Even a person like him won’t be able to resolve this issue in one day.”

My visit to the Island was a reminder that Ukraine survives in part on mythic, galvanizing personalities such as Budanov and President Volodymyr Zelensky. Last year, Budanov’s fans posted what became known as the “silent video,” which showed him sitting wordlessly for 33 seconds in his office, glaring at the camera. At the end of this half-minute of unspoken defiance, the screen displayed the words: “To be continued.”