The story of the man who ‘saved Kiev’… only to be executed as a traitor

Denys Kiryeyev bought Kiev valuable time to arm as Russian forces attempted to take Antonov airport, WSJ reports, citing Gen. Kirill Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency. Days after, he was dead, shot in the head by his own intelligence agents from the SBU.

Kiryeyev found himself straddling both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. His connections made him ideally placed for espionage, and he was recruited into the GUR (military intelligence) by General Kirill Budanov. He would make several trips across the border, ostensibly on business, gathering what intel he could, and report back.

In February 2022, he heard from his sources that Moscow was on the verge of what would later be called the ‘Special Military Operation,’ and sounded the alarm. His actions ‘gave Ukraine a precious few hours to shift troops to counter the Russian assault’ according to Budanov. ‘If it were not for Mr. Kiryeyev, most likely Kiev would have been taken,’ Budanov told the WSJ. But Kiryeyev’s Russian connections had already sealed his fate – the SBU knew of his Russian connections, but not of his GUR work.

Kiryeyev’s Russian connections also put him in demand as a negotiator, a dangerously prominent position. The night before the second round of ceasefire talks, Kiryeyev was summoned to a meeting with Alexander Poklad, the SBU’s chief counterintelligence officer. Suspecting he was about to be arrested, he told his security to stand down. He was whisked into a minivan, where he was shot in the head. 90 minutes later, his body was found dumped on a Kiev sidewalk.

Mikhail Podoliak, an aide to Zelensky, responded to the WSJ article. ‘Those were the first days of the war. His killing is due to the fact that there was no unified coordination between security structures. There were certain claims against him, they did not have time to settle these claims in a dialogue format.’

At the request of the GUR, Kiryeyev was given a hero’s burial. He had saved Kiev, and he paid for it with his life.

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