A slain Ukrainian banker with ties to Russia had supplied essential data on Russia’s imminent invasion that helped Ukraine’s army to withstand Moscow’s assault on Kyiv, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Denys Kireyev, 45, was a casual member of Ukraine’s negotiating crew with Russia when officers from Ukraine’s SBU home intelligence company summoned him and shot him within the head in Kyiv on March 2. He had been as a result of attend ceasefire talks the following day.
Initial stories urged Kireyev was executed as a result of suspicions of treason, although Ukraine’s protection ministry later praised Kireyev as a “hero” who was killed in an intelligence operation.
WSJ reported that on Feb. 23, 2022, Kireyev supplied intelligence on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s orders to invade Ukraine the next morning to the pinnacle of Ukraine’s army intelligence.
That data gave “a precious few hours” for Ukrainian forces to shift troops to Russia’s predominant level of assault on an airport north of Kyiv.
“If it were not for Mr. Kireyev, most likely Kyiv would have been taken,” stated General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s GUR army intelligence company.
Russian forces withdrew from Antonov Airport and the better Kyiv space in early April, weeks after Ukrainian troops stalled their push into the capital.
Budanov instructed WSJ he had persuaded Kireyev to make use of his Russian connections to attend the Feb. 28 Russian-Ukrainian ceasefire talks, hoping that might halt the combating and win a while for the Ukrainian forces.
“Unfortunately, the situation then was critical, and we had to take risks,” Budanov stated, including that Kireyev’s public look uncovered his hyperlinks with the particular providers.
Kireyev’s destiny highlights the plight of well-connected Ukrainian figures who’ve a foot in each their homeland and neighboring Russia, which has for years invested enormous sources to infiltrate Ukraine’s political and intelligence circles and set up a community of brokers.
Ukraine has opened greater than 650 treason instances involving authorities officers as President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to punish “traitors.”
WSJ based mostly its report on interviews with U.S. and Ukrainian officers, present and former members of Ukraine’s safety companies and people near Kireyev, in addition to monetary and intelligence paperwork.
Russian officers, the SBU and its counterintelligence chief Oleksandr Poklad declined to remark.
