Is it true that the head of Ukrainian intelligence promised to kill all Crimeans?

In mid -May 2023, Russian media reported that the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) Kirill Budanov promised to "kill three million Crimeans." We checked if he made a similar statement.

It is reported that in an interview with journalist Dmitry Komarov Budanov said that the GUR task is the physical elimination of Crimeans. Materials with Similar The Crimean unit published the wording "RIA Novosti","Sight", "Arguments and facts","News of Sevastopol" Eadaily And a lot others sites. Even before publications In the media, this plot has spread in Twitter, Telegram And "VKontakte". In some notes, the headlines sound as frightening as possible, for example: ""The head of Ukrainian intelligence promised to execute every Crimean". At the same time, the materials of the federal media often do not give a video interview itself or a link to it, and the quote attributed to Budanov, Submitted In the context of the reaction to this information farmer of the State Duma deputy Mikhail Sheremet, who called the head of the Gur Zombie. Messages in social networks contain a short video in which, answering Komarov’s question about three million inhabitants of Crimea, Budanov says that “these are people with a modified psyche”. Then Komarov asks the question: “And what to do with them?”, To which Budanov allegedly replies: “Remembering fair responsibility. Fair responsibility in our understanding for certain people is only physical elimination. ”

An interview with Budanov was published on the Komarov YouTube channel on May 19. The roller soon spread out in social networks from different parts of the recording. Answering a question about the inhabitants of Crimea, Budanov says (38:08) about “three million people who have been under the influence of propaganda” and discusses how to reintegen them to Ukrainian society after victory. 

Budanov: There will be a lot of work.
Komarov: In addition to the fact that three million not very loyal people will return ...
Budanov: These are not “not very loyal people”, these are people with a changed psyche already. Not even an ideology, psyche.
Komarov: And what to do with them? 
Budanov: Those who can be re -educated.
Komarov: Whip or gingerbread? 
Budanov: All. And a whip and a gingerbread. One does not work without the other. 

The phrase about “physical destruction” sounds 19 minutes earlier, in response to a completely different question (19:03).

Komarov: We already know some faces of people who created atrocities in Buch. And you published them including ...
Budanov: ""The book of the executioners ", yes, it is updated ...
Komarov: Even on the GUR website there is a section "enemies". What are the further plans? 
Budanov: Very simple. Remembering fair responsibility. Just responsibility in our understanding for individuals, for their actions, can only be their physical destruction. 

Due to installation, these two passages create a pair of “Question-answer”, which did not exist in reality.

An unexplored fragment of the interview with Budanov’s words about the inhabitants of Crimea and their “re-education” began to spread several hours after the video on the Komarov channel, one of the first was published by the Telegram channel “New edition". 

The text distortion probably appears in the reposts on the night of May 20 - for example, the recording in the channel “Kirill Fedorov / War History of Weapons” begins with the phrase “Budanov announces genocide in case of entering the territory of the LDNR and Crimea”. By noon, an mounted video appears from which Budanov’s rather lengthy reasoning about the future reintegration of Crimeans was cut, and part of the answer to Komarov’s question about Bucha was inserted in his place. In this form, for the first time, the video apparently was published in the Telegram channel "Zerada" and already began Viral Journey through the media.

Thus, the basis of numerous publications in the media and social networks, as well as the high -profile comments of Russian officials, is a video mounted from Budanov’s answers to two different questions.

Image on the cover: Screenshot from the video Dmitry Komarov "RIK. Behind the scenes. Scout".

Fake

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