Ukraine Claims It Can Intercept Conversations Of Kremlin Officials
The head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency has boasted of being capable of intercepting conversations of senior Russian officials. He made the big claim in a fresh local media interview, but didn't back it up by proof or any specifics.
"Yes, we can. We get paid for this," stated the agency's chief, Kyrylo Budanov, to RBC-Ukraine on Sunday. He had specifically been asked whether Ukrainian intelligence can eavesdrop on Kremlin officials.
The remarks come after recent leaks hit Western press related to Trump officials negotiating with Kremlin officials over the future of the Ukraine war and Trump's peace plan.
But Kiev has obviously not been happy with the White House plan, which offers Russia significant territorial concessions in the Donbas and Crimea, and along with European leaders has been actively trying to thwart it. Thus Ukraine has motive to try and leak as much as possible of interactions between the US and Russia.
In late November, Bloomberg reported that the 28-point peace proposal was drafted by Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff together with Russian lawmaker Kirill Dmitriev during a meeting in Miami in October. As a result, Ukrainian and EU officials tried to smear it as ultimately a 'Russian-desired plan'.
The outlet later released two transcripts of conversations involving Russian and US officials. They purported to reveal Witkoff advising the Russian side on how to best pitch the Kremlin’s ideas to Trump.
Spy chief Budanov in touting Ukraine's eavesdropping capabilities seems to be hinting at involvement; however, these leaks could have just as easily come from the Russian side, or even someone within the a delegation.
After all, the Kremlin has benefited from courting Witkoff and Kushner, while being in the driver's seat militarily on the battlefield. It is enjoying projecting to the world it is not so 'isolated', and is calling many of the shots with Washington because it has real leverage.
On Monday, President Zelensky is in London meeting with Europeans, where they are working on what they call a more 'fair' and 'just' ceasefire plan.
The president and the pretender. Zaluzhny greets Zelensky in London. pic.twitter.com/JEGO58lffp
— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) December 8, 2025
The European outline so far makes no mention of giving up territory, and even leaves the door open for Ukraine's future path to NATO membership. These things are of course a non-starter for Moscow, and that might be the point.
President Putin has already long said that any plan which refuses territorial concessions or to rule out NATO membership would be dead on arrival, and could never be accepted by Russia.