The wife of Ukraine’s spy chief, Lt Gen Kyrylo Budanov, has been poisoned with “heavy metals”, local media report citing sources.
Marianna Budanova was taken to hospital after feeling unwell for a “prolonged period of time”, news website Babel said, quoting intelligence officials.
Two other Ukrainian media outlets later published similar information, relying on their own sources.
Ukraine’s military intelligence has not publicly commented on the reports.
The reports did not say whether or not Russia was thought to be behind the alleged attack.
Ukraine’s Ukrainska Pravda news website said several other intelligence officials had also been poisoned. However, there were no suggestions that Gen Budanov may also have been targeted.
The general, who leads the Main Directorate of Intelligence (DIU) of Ukraine’s defence ministry, has played a key role in planning and sometimes executing major military operations against Russian forces, following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
News website Babel, which on Tuesday was the first to report the alleged poisoning, quoted one of its sources in Ukrainian intelligence as saying that Mrs Budanova was now completing a course of treatment and would be monitored by doctors.
The unnamed official added that the substances Mrs Budanova had been poisoned with were “not used in any way in everyday life or military operations”. The official provided no further details. (BBC)
