The Main Intelligence Agency (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has significantly increased its staff during the Russian invasion, primarily combat and operational combat units, as well as technical intelligence and cyber intelligence, said the head of the GUR Kyrylo Budanov.

"Due to the increase in the volume of information received, the Ukrainian intelligence service has strengthened the analytical direction and introduced new services based on artificial intelligence for technical data processing. Ukraine also makes extensive use of the opportunities provided by the intelligence agencies of the partner countries. For example, information about missile launches from frontiers that we cannot cover with our radio electronic and electronic intelligence is critically important to us. This help is invaluable for us," Budanov said in an interview with The Telegraph.

In addition, the GUR helps guerrilla groups operating in the territory of the Russian Federation, supports them, interacts with them, sometimes expresses its requests or sets certain tasks.

"But this is not such a massive phenomenon as it sometimes seems," Budanov stressed.

Agents also play a serious role in the process of confrontation with the Russian Federation: During the war, it was assigned the task not only to receive information, but also to carry out special active events.

"Thanks to intelligence agencies, Ukraine was able to obtain data in advance about the Russian attack on February 24, 2022. If we had relied solely on electronic, radio engineering or cyber intelligence data, we would not have been ready, would not have realized that an invasion was going to take place, and would not have had time to prepare," Budanov said.