Ukraine’s spymaster has got under the Kremlin’s skin

IT TAKES A certain amount of fear to paralyse seasoned military-intelligence officers. But a Russian attack on the officers’ Rybalsky island headquarters in Kyiv in March 2022 crossed that threshold. The officers recall “terror” as missiles landed, windows popped and ramshackle buildings crumbled at the edges. The men, waiting in a reception area for a meeting with their boss, fell to the floor. Moments later a door beside them opened, and Major-General Kyrylo Budanov stepped out. “Everything is fine,” one recalls him grunting, before he ordered them to get back to work. “He dusted himself off, put his cap on and went outside to inspect the damage.”