‘A monstrous statement’: Kremlin spokesman responds to Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov’s promise to ‘keep killing Russians’

The Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov condemned Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov’s statements in a Yahoo News interview published last week.

In the interview, Budanov replied to a question about the murder of Darya Dugina by saying: “Don’t continue with that topic. All I will comment on [it] is that we’ve been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.”

According to Peskov, Budanov’s words confirm Ukraine’s role in terrorist attacks on Russian territory. “This really is a monstrous statement,” he said, “that confirms directly that the Kyiv regime doesn’t just sponsor terrorist activity but also acts as its immediate organizer.”

Peskov added that Russia condemns Budanov’s words and will monitor the reaction of Western governments “very closely.” “It’s hard to imagine that such terrorist statements would not be condemned,” Peskov said, adding that Budanov’s promise to “keep killing Russians” justifies Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

Update: U.S. State Department’s Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said, in a Monday briefing, that the U.S. does not “condone the targeting of civilians,” be it in Russia, Ukraine, or “any other part of the world.”