Budanov announces events for Feb 2026 to open window for peace in Ukraine

Important events that will open the prospects for ending the war in Ukraine will occur in February 2026, Head of the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov has said.

"We will approach this in the winter. Let me put it this way: our window will open again in the middle of February. All events will be – the beginning of February, mid-February," Budanov said in an interview with Channel 24, answering the question of when we should expect the coincidence of events that will lead to a turning point in the war.

He called the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump "as systematic and consistent as possible." "Without his intervention, I don't think there is a chance to stop the fighting. As of now," the agency head said.

When asked how he sees the international security architecture in the future, so that the Russian-Ukrainian war does not happen again, he replied: "It will definitely be modified. Many countries have concluded that, first of all, they need to rely on their own forces and build strong bilateral relations with those in whom they are confident, that is, with those who will definitely come to their aid." "What happened, especially at the beginning of 22, during the beginning of our full-scale invasion of us, discussions within NATO, they showed that certain countries are categorically not ready to make radical decisions. And we don't remember this, but they remembered it very well inside and drew conclusions from it. Therefore, I think that in parallel with the existence of those large blocs that exist, new regional formations of a military-political orientation will appear," Budanov said.