Strana, one of the top online newspapers in Ukraine, which is banned in Russia since 2022, reported on Friday that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is planning to dismiss Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and the powerful military intelligence chief Gen. Kirill Budanov from their posts as part of his continuing purge of the military establishment in Kiev.

Umerov is a political lightweight and a non-military man by profession and may become the ‘fall guy’, as the Ukrainian military is losing the Battle of Donbass. But Budanov belongs to an entirely different planet — a professional soldier with a career entirely in the special forces of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) ever since he graduated from the Odesa Institute of the Ground Forces in 2007 (originally, the elite educational institution of the Soviet Armed Forces for the training of officers of military intelligence units.) Ironically, his expertise in operations against Russia has put him today at the top of the list of wanted men in Moscow.

At the end of the day, what makes Budanov indispensable are three things.

First and foremost, Budanov is an exceptionally audacious intelligence officer of a rare breed in any country and, therefore, a ‘strategic asset’ to the regime in Kiev. Second, he supervises three anti-Kremlin Russian militias fighting for Ukraine, the largest being the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) led by Denis Kapustin, whom German authorities once described as “one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists on the European continent today”. (See the academic paper titled Ukrainian Nazism today: origin and ideological and political typology on the Russian foreign ministry’s website.)

Kiev struggles to maintain that RVC acts independently and its success only testifies to the Kremlin’s loss of control of the security situation in the country. But in reality, RVC’s raids are closely coordinated with the HUR, which provides logistical assistance, vets the operational plans and arms and bankrolls them. In fact, RVC is formally part of the Ukrainian armed forces, enlisted in the so-called International Legion. By the way, Kapustin has links with American neo-Nazi groups as well.

Third and most crucial, Budanov’s links with the CIA are a legion. The New York Times in a sensational report detailing for the first time the vastness of the........

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