New technologies not to replace traditional intelligence methods – Budanov

This was stated by Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov in a conversation with military strategist and retired Australian Army Major General Mick Ryan, as reported by the HUR press service, according to Ukrinform.

"Civilian technologies, such as OSINT, data from social networks, and satellite images, are important for modern warfare, but they are supplementary and will not replace the old methods of intelligence," the defense intelligence chief noted.

Budanov said that information from open sources can indeed be useful, for example, to confirm the effectiveness of operations, but for this to happen, someone has to be in the right place with a camera and publish images or videos on social media.

However, he pointed out that in many cases this does not occur.

"Moreover, information from open sources can easily be falsified to mislead people," he warned.

As previously reported by Ukrinform, Budanov stated that in the fall of 2021, defense intelligence released data about Russia's plans to invade Ukraine.

Photo: Main Intelligence Directorate