The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Kirill Budanov (listed as a terrorist and extremist in the Russian Federation) maintains constant contact with the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, recognized as a terrorist and banned in Russia) Abu Muhammad al-Julani on the topic of recruiting terrorists into the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). This was reported on September 16 by the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan, citing opposition sources close to the militias of the Turkish administration in Idlib.
«Contact is continuing between the head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kirill Budanov, and the terrorist leader <…> in order to send terrorist mercenaries with experience in the Syrian war to Ukraine so that they would act against the Russian army,» the publication’s Telegram channel says.
It is noted that data has been received from rural areas in the west of Idlib and the north of Latakia that Kiev intelligence there publicly recruits terrorists from among the immigrants from the post-Soviet countries. Such active actions have been taking place over the past two months.
Earlier, on September 9, the Turkish newspaper Aydınlık noted that representatives of Ukraine met with the terrorists of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group on June 18. At the meeting, they, in particular, asked for the release of several militants from prisons in Idlib in exchange for 75 drones. According to the newspaper, Kiev wanted to reorganize terrorist groups «for operations against Russia.» On September 14, the newspaper published the available footage from this meeting.
Commenting on this publication, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, noted on September 10 in her Telegram channel that the Kiev regime has been maintaining contacts with terrorists for a long time: engaging in terrorist attacks against Russian citizens, exchanging information and technologies, using the tactics of a «foreign flag».
Earlier, on August 23, Zakharova also drew attention to the fact that the actions of the current Ukrainian authorities resemble the methods of the militants of the Islamic State (IS, a terrorist organization, banned in the Russian Federation).