Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, spoke at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Yalta European Strategy.

He described the situation of the aggressor state of russia in the military, financial, economic, social and political areas.

According to Kyrylo Budanov, the negative impact of the war is expected to significantly increase in russia at the end of 2025 and at the beginning of 2026.

“These are russia’s calculations. If they do not come out of this war as self-professed winners by this time, then in the near future, about 30 years, they will lose the opportunity to be a superpower. Then two countries will remain: the United States and China. And the most that russia can count on is regional leadership, which does not suit it,” he noted.

The DIU’s chief also commented on the process of moving the war to the territory of the aggressor country, including explosions at russian military facilities.

Among other things, such strikes have an impact on the population of the russian federation, which supports the war against Ukraine and is used to feeling safe, believing that russia is so powerful that nothing threatens it.

“With the first explosions in moscow and across russia, this myth was destroyed. This is the main achievement of all these long-range strikes,” Kyrylo Budanov explained.

He noted the growing role of drones during the war and stressed that unmanned technologies and electronic warfare systems would continue to develop.

The special service’s head said that the strong points of the Ukrainians were self-belief, motivation to fight for their land, and non-standard approaches to decisions, which the russians did not have.

“Ukraine is a country of opportunities. The more I live, the more I see it: everything is possible here. Thousands of drones were made from scratch. Who could have thought of this two years ago? Our strong point lies in our non-standard approach and belief that we can do anything. We are fighting for our land, and here we have no options,” Kyrylo Budanov said.