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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
I watched Kirill Budanov’s interview, recorded back in early 2025 for the book Commanders of Victory. A year and a half have passed, and some things sound as if spoken today. This is especially true for the talks with Russia.
Budanov makes a very clear distinction between a ceasefire and a peace. Reaching an agreement to stop the fire is quite feasible. Reaching a just peace is much more difficult. Because you have to bargain with an enemy that has not renounced its goal of destroying you. Therefore there will be both a “club” and a “carrot,” and various proposals to reach an agreement. And any pause Russia will try to use to regroup and accumulate strength.
This is worth remembering today, when we are again talking a lot about negotiations, ceasefires, and ending the war.
A ceasefire in itself does not yet mean real peace. Budanov speaks about Russia’s possibilities without tipping into extremes. Yes, it has enormous mobilization resources. It is ready to burn the economy to prolong the war. But “Kyiv in three days” has long since turned into years of hard fighting. Progress for Russia comes at a very high price and not at the pace the Russian leader expected.
We must never underestimate the enemy. But we also should not treat it as all-powerful. A good example is the initial broad-scale relocations of combat operations onto Russian territory. It is now a little odd to recall, but back then we were told that moving combat actions onto Russian soil was not possible. We were told that Putin would press the nuclear button and the world would end. Ukrainian forces still advanced. There was no nuclear strike afterward. The Armageddon promised by propagandists also did not begin.
The significance of such operations was far greater than their purely military outcome. They broke an important psychological barrier and showed that a large part of Russia’s “red lines” exist only as long as we are afraid to cross them. Today, Ukraine already reaches the aggressor thousands of kilometers away. And what now seems almost ordinary then required a decision not to fear Russian threats.
Words about fatigue were deeply painful to hear, because today they are more relevant than ever. Budanov agrees that everyone is tired of the war. And this is completely normal after so many years of deaths, anxieties, losses, uncertainty, and constant tension. This fatigue cannot be defeated by slogans or another portion of the right words. People need results, victories on the front, in diplomacy, and in politics. It is they who give energy and restore belief that all these efforts make sense and that we are moving forward, not simply enduring blows indefinitely.
Yes, we very much need to believe that tomorrow will come and that it will not include Russia with its drive to destroy Ukrainians and Ukraine. Budanov’s belief in victory is based on being informed. It is based on understanding the real state of affairs, the enemy’s capabilities, and our own resources. It is from this, in his view, that any strategy should begin. Without rose-colored glasses about ourselves. But also without exaggerating the enemy’s strength or fearing him.
I think in his new position the amount of information Budanov possesses has only grown. But even his interview from a year and a half ago sounds more relevant today, in places, than it did back then.
Source: Viktor Taran / Facebook
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Віра Буданова у перемогу ґрунтується на інформованості, без рожевих окулярів". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Gordon.
