Poisoning in Ukraine

Marianna Budanova, the wife of the chief of Ukraine’s defence intelligence (DIU), was poisoned with heavy metals on Tuesday and is receiving medical treatment, according to Kyiv. Some DIU officers were poisoned as well, spokesman Andriy Yusov told the BBC. Budanova, who lives permanently with her husband Kyrylo Budanov in his office for security reasons, was “most likely poisoned through food”, according to local media. Budanov himself has survived more than 10 assassination attempts since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, including a missile attack on his office. Earlier this week, Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s national security and defence council secretary, told the Times that Russia had activated sleeper spies in Ukraine in order to drive a wedge between the political and military leadership, using “so-called tension” between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Commander-in-Chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.