War · Analysis

Kyiv's International Footprint as Viewed from the Receiving End

Budanov marks Intelligence Day by describing Ukrainian reach that runs from Germany to Africa. Foreign governments register UN cases against HUR's overreach.

Kyrylo Oleksiyovych Budanov marked Ukraine's Day of Military Intelligence on 7th September by posting on Telegram that the service he ran for more than five years protects Ukrainian interests “from Russia to Africa, from suit to camouflage”. Budanov headed the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) from mid-2020 until earlier this year, when he became head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. At least five international governments have since opened cases involving Ukrainian nationals whose activity was recorded as antithetical to their states, while Italy and Germany have helped with extraditing Ukrainian offenders.

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) released recordings on 27th August 2026 from its wider “Midas” energy-sector corruption probe that brought down former Energy and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko in a scam of over $100 million. One recording, dated 9th June 2026, allegedly captures Budanov, by then head of the Presidential Office, in conversation with businessman Tymur Mindich and Budanov's then-deputy Iryna Mudra about handing over control of Sense Bank's financial flows. Investigators say the plan was for Mindich to route laundered funds through Budanov toward bail payments of nearly $3.3 million for detained minister. Budanov has not been charged; he alleges it was not his voice on evidence in this spinoff investigation named Operation Forrest Gump. However, Mudra was named a formal suspect and ordered held on 20 million hryvnia, approx. $450,000, bail on 25th August 2026, and dismissed by Zelenskyy.

While still HUR chief, Budanov signed a letter to Ukraine's State Border Service on 27th January 2025, authorising Kyiv city councillor Vladyslav Trubitsyn and four others to cross the border between 28th January and 25th May. They were thus authorised ostensibly to procure “special equipment” for Special Operations Forces at the request of SSO commander Viktor Khorenko. Trubitsyn was at the time facing bribery charges in a case tied to Kyiv retail permits. He crossed into Poland on the 13th of May, skipped his hearing set for three days later, and an international arrest warrant followed in June. It is understood that HUR leadership provided cover for a fugitive; however, Budanov and Khorenko are not charged.

Serhii K, a former Ukrainian army officer, was arrested in Italy in August 2025 and extradited to Germany that November. He was cited as the organiser of the September 2022 Nord Stream pipeline blasts by German prosecutors. A second suspect, Vladimir Z, a trained scuba diver who helped plant the explosives, was arrested in Pula, Croatia in August 2026 and ordered extradited to Germany as well. German federal prosecutors state that the pair acted on behalf of Ukrainian state entities. Kyiv's government has offered no denial, instead stating that they do not have enough information to confirm the findings. Extradition proceedings against both men remain underway in Rome and Zagreb.

Fourteen Ukrainians entered India on tourist visas on different dates and travelled to the eastern state of Mizoram, according to their National Investigation Agency's court filing. Seven of them, six Ukrainian nationals and American Matthew Aaron VanDyke, founder of the Washington-based consultancy Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), were detained at airports in Delhi, Kolkata and Lucknow on the 13th of March. SOLI’s largest declared programme is in the Ukraine, and self-declares nearly 1,000 soldiers being trained in marksmanship, close-quarters combat, battlefield technology and prototype development. The NIA initially charged the group of the seven arrested under India's anti-terror laws, alleging they crossed illegally from Mizoram into Myanmar, trained ethnic armed groups fighting the country's military junta in drone assembly, operation and jamming, and imported drone consignments from Europe through Indian territory for delivery to those groups. In September 2026 the agency told a Delhi court the seven were linked to a drone strike on a Myanmar National Airlines passenger aircraft at Myitkyina airport, likely to a February 2024 attack on an ATR 72-600 previously reported by Myanmar state media. The Ukrainians named in the case, Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim and Kaminskyi Viktor, remain in custody although India’s investigating agency has currently dropped charges other than unlawful migration against them. American team leader Van Dyke’s case was raised by the US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, during a state visit by Marco Rubio to New Delhi in May this year.

Mizoram borders Myanmar and requires special travel permits because of the ethnic armed groups operating across that line. India's NIA has rejected Kyiv's position that no proven facts tie the group to unlawful activity on Indian or Myanmar soil, and by September 2026 the agency was pursuing a further allegation before the Delhi court: that equipment supplied by the same seven men was used in the drone strike on the Myanmar National Airlines aircraft.

Ukrainian “specialists” have also supported the Azawad Liberation Front in northern Mali, a Tuareg-led coalition supporting Islamist and separatist forces against Russia's Africa Corps, coordinating drone strikes remotely and assisting with the takeover of Kidal in early 2026. Tuareg coalitions have coordinated with Al Qaeda and have joined their affiliates to coordinate attacks in the region prompting accusations of terrorism. One Ukrainian operator described the arrangement to CNN: the signal from a rebel drone reaches him over the internet and he radios back instructions on where to fly it. Ukrainian Defence Intelligence has separately confirmed “specialists” stationed in Sudan, while fighters from Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso have received drone instruction from Ukrainian personnel operating out of Mali. Mali's junta, joined by Niger and Burkina Faso, lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations Security Council in August 2024 stating that Ukraine was sponsoring international terrorism. Considering that a quarter of Ukraine’s population of 36 million is said to have left the country with most choosing to never return, and women allegedly being pushed to be drafted into its military, Ukrainian fighters in foreign land deployed with the heft of its best equipment raises eyebrows.

In Libya, French broadcaster RFI reported in April 2026 that more than 200 Ukrainian military specialists were operating in the country. Ukrainian naval drone operators have worked from the Misrata base since late 2025, targeting tankers tied to “shadow-fleet” networks. One of those drones broke loose and washed up near the Greek coast in 2026, prompting a formal diplomatic protest from Athens.

It is with some suspicion and significant distress that the world views the exploits that Budanov writes of with pride. The global footprints Ukraine leaves may have short term impact, but could well be valuable within their own borders.

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