Swam 8 km: Budanov impressed with details about his personal participation in a special operation in Crimea in 2016. Video

Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, spoke about a series of landings of Ukrainian intelligence officers in Crimea in 2016. According to Budanov, he was directly involved in some of them.

The chief of military intelligence said this in an interview with Krym.Realii. After one of the landings, which were carried out to "transfer cargo deep into the territory", Budanov assures, the scouts left by swimming across the Sivash, which then swam about 8 km.

During the interview, the journalist showed a photo of Budanov with a group of scouts against the sea.

"Is that you in the middle?" - she asked.

The intelligence chief replied that he "knows this photo".

"This is after a certain stage. We have visited Crimea many times. After one of the events," the Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine described the circumstances under which the photo was taken.

He explained that it was a large-scale military intelligence operation on the occupied peninsula in 2016.

"As part of this operation (in 2016 - Ed.), we entered Crimea more than once... Everything is fine (it's over - Ed.). To move cargoes deeper into the territory," Budanov said.

According to him, the scouts had to return from one of the exits by swimming across the Sivash.

"It was a long swim. 8 km. I think it's 6.7 km in a straight line. We were a little bit in an arc, as they say... What could I think about? That we all had to get out somehow. We went out in three subgroups (- Ed.)," the Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine recalled.

Krym. Realii reminded that Budanov was directly involved in the operation in Crimea in August 2016.

"Back then, Ukraine's military intelligence received information about Russia's deployment of combat helicopters to Dzhankoy and decided to destroy them. Kyiv claims that in Crimea, Budanov's group clashed with an 'elite FSB special forces unit', destroyed the enemy in a few minutes of fighting and left the territory of Crimea without losses," the newspaper notes.

After this daring operation, the Russian FSB announced the alleged detention of a group of "Ukrainian saboteurs" who, according to the occupiers, were preparing terrorist attacks on the peninsula. Kyiv denied the Russian accusations against the detainees and claimed that the invaders had provoked them.

Earlier, Budanov said how many Russians surrender voluntarily. According to him, every fifth occupier chooses the former between captivity and death.

However, Ukraine still has a smaller exchange fund than Russia.

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