Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File
- A top Ukrainian military official's wife was diagnosed with heavy metal poisoning, officials said.
- Marianna Budanova is recovering in a hospital after falling ill, Ukrainian media reported.
- An expert said Russia is a prime suspect given the country's penchant for poison.
The wife of Ukraine's top military intelligence official is recovering in a hospital after being poisoned by heavy metals, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.
Marianna Budanova, the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, who serves as head of Ukraine's defense intelligence agency, was diagnosed with heavy metals poisoning but survived, a spokesperson for the agency told The Associated Press this week.
Officials did not offer additional details about the incident or about who was behind the attack but said an investigation was ongoing.
Local Ukrainian media were first to report the poisoning and said the metals deployed were not ones used domestically, suggesting the attack may have been intentional, The AP reported. The heavy metals used in such poisonings can include arsenic and mercury, The Washington Post reported.
Both Budanov and his wife have previously said they moved into his office soon after Russia's invasion in February 2022 and stay together nearly all the time. The couple are believed to still live there, indicating the poison may have been intended for him, The AP reported.
In an October 2022 interview with Ukraine's Elle magazine, Budanova described how she and her husband prepared for Russia's invasion on the eve of the February 2022 attack.
"We got together and went to his place of work, and since then we have not been home," she told the outlet.
While the motive and perpetrator behind Budanova's poisoning remains unclear, an expert on Russia and Ukraine said Russia is the obvious suspect.
Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations, pointed to Russia's extensive history of using poison against its enemies, including in suspected attacks against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, double agent Sergeĭ Skripal, and journalist and politician Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Russia's penchant for poison points to "a precedent and pattern for this type of behavior," Miles told Business Insider. "Russia is very much a viable suspect for it, naturally the prime one."
The Russian government did not immediately acknowledge or comment on Budanova's poisoning.
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian defense agency told local media earlier this year that Budanov — who accurately predicted Russia's full-scale invasion before the February 2022 attack on Kyiv — has survived 10 assassination attempts made by Russia's state security service.
Targeting officials' family members can be an effective way of dissuading them from serving their country "for fear of what it means not for them, who might be willing to take the risk, but for others on whom it's unfair to impose that risk, like spouses and children," Miles said.
Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that several other agency personnel were also exposed to the heavy metal poison but did not need treatment. The outlet cited security sources who said Budovna was most likely targeted via her food.
Since the war began, Ukraine has managed to take out several Russian military leaders via assassination.
"Perhaps the Kremlin's 'defense' would be that this is a tit-for-tat cycle and not unique to Russia in this war," Miles said.