Denys Kireyev

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (April 2024) Click for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ru|Киреев, Денис Борисович}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Ukrainian. (April 2024) Click for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Ukrainian Wikipedia article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|uk|Кірєєв Денис Борисович}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Denys Kireyev (Ukrainian: Денис Борисович Кірєєв; 1 January 1977 – 5 March 2022) was a Ukrainian banker and intelligence officer.

On 23 February 2022, Kireyev obtained information that Antonov Airport would be the site of the main attack of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which allowed Ukraine to repel the initial assault on the airport and damage it heavily enough that it could not be used by Russia. Following the invasion on 24 February, he joined the 28 February peace negotiations in Gomel, Belarus.^[1] He was killed a week later by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).^[2] Kireyev was supposed to participate in the next round of peace talks in Belarus on March 3.^[3]

According to Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR), if it was not for the information given by Kireyev, Kyiv would have probably fallen.^[1]

In 2010–2014, he was First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Oschadbank, and prior to that he was a member of the supervisory board of Ukreximbank. He also worked for Citibank, Credit Lyonnais, ING Group, and Rabobank.^[4]

Kireyev died on 5 March 2022. According to preliminary reports in Russian and Ukrainian media, he was suspected of working as a double agent for Russia and was killed by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) that waited for him under his house and dispatched him with a shot in his head. According to these reports, he was suspected of treason, and the SBU held records of telephone conversations as evidence. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence's Directorate of Intelligence subsequently confirmed Kireyev's death in a Facebook post, but asserted that he was an intelligence operative for Ukraine who died in the line of duty on a "special mission."^[5][6][7]

On 18 January 2023, Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) Kyrylo Budanov stated that Kireyev was the one who, on 23 February 2022, warned GUR of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian intelligence agencies decided to use Kireyev to obtain timely information during the Russian military buildup in September 2021 under the guise of military exercises Zapad 2021. The security forces took him to Kharkiv, from where he and another intelligence officer would enter the Russian Federation, and a few days later he would return and report to the GUR leadership. Thus, Kireyev warned the Ukrainian leadership about the Russian leadership's plans to attack Kyiv in January-February 2022, and a few hours before the Russian invasion, he described in detail the main location of the attack on the Antonov Airport in Hostomel. This intelligence provided several hours for the deployment of some amount of Ukrainian troops and helped to defend Kyiv at the beginning of the invasion. Budanov said that Kyiv most likely would have been occupied if not for Kireyev.^[8]

In January 2023, Zelenskyy's advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kireyev's death was a tragic mistake possibly due to "poor coordination" between the GUR and the SBU.^[3]

This Ukrainian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e