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Major-General Kyrylo Budanov is the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence - the 37-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise to become the country's youngest head of the organisation. Russia believes that he is lying in a coma in Germany following a missile strike on his headquarters but he’s actually alive and ready to take ‘direct action’ against his enemies.

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Guest: Anthony Loyd, special correspondent, The Times.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Clips: CNN, BBC, ABC, CBC, DW, Sky News.

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At the heart of President Trump’s impeachment is his request that Ukraine investigate how his political rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., could be connected to an energy company called Burisma. New reporting from The Times suggests that Russian hackers may be trying to fulfill that request — and potentially hack into the 2020 election itself. Guests: Nicole Perlroth, who covers cybersecurity for The Times, spoke with Oren Falkowitz, a former analyst at the National Security Agency and co-founder of the cybersecurity company Area 1. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• The Times has evidence that the same Russian military hackers that stole emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 have been infiltrating Burisma, the energy company at the center of the Ukraine affair. Here’s what we know about the hackers.
• New details emerged on Tuesday of Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine, intensifying demands on Senate Republicans to include witness testimony and additional documents in the impeachment trial.