Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov said that Russia knew in advance about the preparation of a terrorist operation on its territory. He said this at the Third International Forum on Strategic Communications.
"At least on February 15, 2024, Russia knew about the preparations. I'll tell you more, this information went through the group's intelligence department in Syria. From there, it went to Moscow," Kyrylo Budanov said.
According to him, Russia knew where the militant groups would come from and through which two countries they moved to its territory.
"Why they allowed this to happen - there are several options. The first is, as is their custom, a struggle of the "towers" to take down a few officials now. Another option is that they actually underestimated the scale of what would happen. They thought that it would be more localized and wanted to blame Ukraine for everything," the GUR chief said.
Budanov also denied Ukraine's involvement in the terrorist attack.
"There were explanations from Patrushev and Bortnikov, who accused me personally and that it was all done by Ukraine. This is nonsense. By the way, if we have touched on this painful issue, even though it is the enemy, I do not approve of terrorist acts against civilians in principle," said Kyrylo Budanov.
It is worth noting that earlier the GUR stated a different version of the incident in the Moscow region. Immediately after the terrorist attack in the Crocus, the department stated that it was organized by the Russian special services themselves on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to carry out mobilization.
