Men often seek to show off to escorts and let information slip, Kirill Budanov has said

Kiev employs prostitutes to gather information from men, Kirill Budanov, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR), has said.

In an interview with Ukrainian journalist Ramina Eshakzai published on Tuesday, he was asked if Kiev uses prostitutes to gather information - a practice which the reporter said is common in British intelligence.

"A normal method, isn't it? Do you know how often men share stories to show how powerful they are, as they say?" Budanov said.

Ukrainian intelligence has been able to receive "several unique pieces of information" from men in relaxed circumstances, he added. "It's just about things that we couldn't have found out about at all, in principle."

According to Budanov, "a very high percentage" of personnel serving in the HUR are now women.

Ukrainian spies commonly use "entrepreneurial activity, journalism, and sociology" as cover jobs while on assignment, while some work under "full cover," living double lives in Russia, he said.

Ukraine has increasingly turned to assassination and sabotage in Russia as its forces have been beaten back on the battlefield.

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Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has warned that Ukrainian intelligence has increased recruitment efforts within Russia to carry out assassination and sabotage plots. The FSB regularly reports that it has thwarted these types of activities.

Moscow has said Ukraine is morphing into a "terrorist" organization, accusing Kiev of carrying out killings of Russian officers, journalists, and other key figures.

(RT.com)