Budanov: Russia mistook summer 2025 protests in Ukraine for a coup and expected capitulation

Budanov made the remarks in an interview with Ukrainian TV broadcasters. He said Moscow believed at the time the war could soon end.

Budanov said that during one round of talks with Russian representatives, his counterparts told him that “the war was over” and that there was no point in continuing the negotiations.

When he asked them to explain, the Russians said they believed the Ukrainian protests were a Western-organized coup.

“They said, ‘We know everything. Westerners have invested in this. Everything will fall into place now. In principle, the meeting went well, but we’ll discuss other conditions now. You will have a different country,” Budanov recalled.

He said the Russians also insisted that he did not understand the situation and failed to see that the protests were being controlled by “Western agents.”

He added that the Russian negotiators later acknowledged their mistake, saying they had “really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity,” but their expectations were not fulfilled.

In July 2025, mass protests took place across Ukraine after the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) was curtailed by a controversial bill passed by the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) and promptly signed into law by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The law was repealed shortly afterwards.