Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine, speaks during the farewell ceremony for Dmytro Kotsiubailo on Independence Square on March 10, 2023, in Kyiv, Ukraine. They conduct a complex operation ... it will be a difficult period. Mid-May, early June," Budanov told the BBC in an interview conducted on April 19, a day before the U.S. House of Representatives approved a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hinted last Friday that Russian forces would try to seize the city of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine in a future significant Russian offensive operation. Russia wants to establish a demilitarized so-called "sanitary zone" in the border areas of Ukraine to protect Russia's southwestern regions from attack.

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Persons: Kyrylo Budanov, Dmytro Kotsiubailo, Budanov, We've, we'll, Sergei Lavrov, Holly Ellyatt Organizations: Directorate of Intelligence, BBC, . House, CNBC, Russian, Kremlin Locations: Ukraine, Kyiv, Russia, BBC Ukrainian, Kharkiv