President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had spoken to the head of the Defense Intelligence Service, Kyrylo Budanov, after he had stated that Russia was threatening an offensive from the north. Zelenskyy noted that Budanov told him that he had been misunderstood. He said this during a press conference, a correspondent of UNN reports.
The journalist asked for a comment on Budanov's statement that a Russian offensive was being prepared from the north and asked which direction was being discussed, was it Kharkiv or not. Zelensky replied: "I called General Budanov after this statement and he said that he was misunderstood a little bit. That is, we understand that there may be an offensive, we are in a war with the Russians. There may be an offensive, it just may be.
Zelensky also said that, in his opinion and the opinion of the Armed Forces command, the situation in the east is the most difficult.
We believe that serious work has been done in the Kharkiv region, I would say, to make it impossible for a powerful offensive from the north, because it was stopped there. This stoppage has dragged out the troops from different parts of the country that were standing along our border, which made it impossible for them to have a strong grouping on the other side
Addendum
The head of the Defense Intelligence Service, Kirill Budanov, confirmed the existence of problemsthat tend to worsen, but assured that there is no catastrophic situation yet. He made these comments after being asked by a journalist about the possible impact of the Kremlin's plans to mobilize 300,000 Russians on future offensives in the east and north.
In May 2024, Zelenskyy reported that a possible Russian offensive in the north could be another attempt to pull Ukrainian forces away from Donbas.