At the Stratcom 2026 forum in Kyiv, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, said that the change in Russia's goals in the war - from the capture of Kyiv to declarative non-alignment - shows that the Kremlin's original plan has failed.
Changing Russian goals: from “Kyiv in three days” to declarations
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kirill Budanov at Kyiv Stratcom Forum 2026 stressed that Moscow is no longer able to achieve its original intentions in the war against Ukraine. «Reality on the battlefield breaks any propaganda. The path from “Kyiv in three days” to “Donbas at any cost”, and now to purely declarative demands for Ukraine's non-alignment, shows that it is impossible to achieve the original goals,» he stressed.
Propaganda and mental warfare: challenges for Ukraine
Budanov pointed out that the Russian propaganda is now hastily searching for new formats of “victory”, trying to convince its own society and justify the huge losses. He called on Ukrainians to realise the depth of the mental warfare: «We must finally realise the scale of the mental war the enemy is waging against us. For too long, we have voluntarily given away a huge part of our heritage. Russia has simply privatised and rewritten our history for itself. Therefore, the return of historical truth, our heroes and the identity of Ukrainians should be a priority.».
