Anonymous telegram channels and Russian media that broadcast pro-Kremlin rhetoric, as well as a number of Ukrainian media, have spread information that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, allegedly wrote on Telegram about a “successful operation in Crimea” and allegedly thanked “Ukrainian patriots in Crimea” for the video of the joint work of the Main Intelligence Directorate and AFU”. It's fake.

The case drew the attention of the Center for Strategic Communications. The Telegram channel referred to by Russian propaganda and Ukrainian media is indicated as fake. The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, did not make such statements about the events in the temporarily occupied Crimea. Also, there are no such statements on the official channels of the GUR and Kyrylo Budanov’s channel. Moreover, Andrii Yusov, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, told the Suspilne that “the comment allegedly on behalf of Kyrylo Budanov that the explosion at the training ground in Crimea was the work of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Main Intelligence Directorate is a fake. All our official pages are on the website of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine”.

This is not the first time that propaganda is trying to discredit the head of the GUR, Kyrylo Budanov, and to whitewash the Russians by accusing the Ukrainians of crimes. Earlier, Detector Media refuted the fake about Kyrylo Budanov that allegedly he announced a plan to destroy 3 million inhabitants of Crimea after the victory. We also talked about what pro-Kremlin telegram channels wrote about explosions on the Crimean bridge.