Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, has delivered an online lecture to the students of the Senior Executive Fellows programme of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
The head of the Ukrainian intelligence service expressed his views on the current world order, challenges and threats to global security posed by the russian-Ukrainian war, and assessed the situation in putin's russia, in particular, the possibility of social change within the aggressor state.
Kyrylo Budanov noted that the destructive effect of the kremlin's propaganda inside russia can be overcome either by some kind of force majeure situation or by very long systematic work, which can only yield results in a few decades.
"For putin, the most important thing is internal stability, so they spend everything imaginable - not just money - on controlling the media, working with society, controlling the masses, etc. This, by the way, is one of the main aspects of why the russian federation is not going for a new open wave of mobilisation. The russian leadership is afraid of negative perception in society. This is likely to happen if they do," he explained.
DIU chief also said that in the confrontation with aggressive russia, he is a supporter of the inseparable approach of force and diplomacy.
"Neither the Korean nor Moldovan nor German scenarios are impossible here - none of them will work. We have to put an end to this once and for all," said Kyrylo Budanov.
In his opinion, there are now all signs of the destruction of the world order created after the Second World War. And russia's war against Ukraine is a clear indication of how one person has undermined the global security system.
"Either we all together will force to return to the world order that was created and for many years more or less satisfied everyone, or it is time for a new world order," concluded Kyrylo Budanov.