Transcript of Ex-Ukrainian official believes this act was ‘personal revenge by Putin’

Tonight, a desperate race against time. This is what's left of an apartment building after a deadly Russian missile strike series in Eastern Ukraine. Crews searching for a family that may still be trapped inside the rubble that includes an eight-year-old girl. This video also showing a six-month-old boy named Eli who was rescued given urgent medical care. This comes as the wife of Ukraine's top spy chief is also recovering after a suspected poisoning by Russia. It is the latest in a long list of enemies of the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, likely to be poisoned. Fred Pleikin is out front.

Ukraine's military intelligence wages war in the shadows, but it is hitting the Russians hard, orchestrating cruise missile attacks on Vladimir Putin's Black Sea fleet, ousting Moscow's forces from oil and gas drilling platforms off the Coast of occupied Crimea in a daring amphibious assault, and attacking the Russian capital with long-distance combat drones while maintaining deniability. The man leading the intelligence service, GUR, is Kyrillov Budanov, one of Russia's most feared enemies. I appeal to Russian soldiers, to those who got lucky enough to survive and destroy trenches, he recently said. It will be even worse. You have a choice: die or save your life. But now Ukraine believes the Russians may have struck back. Kyiv saying, Budanov's wife, Mariana Budanova, has been poisoned by what they say is, quote, a heavy medal. A Ukrainian source telling CNN, Budanova tested positive for both our and mercury poisoning. Ukrainian officials believe the Kremlin could be behind it, like the foreign minister right here on Outfront.

Definitely, our intelligence chief is the enemy of Russia, as all of us are, all those who are fighting against Russia. So it's highly likely that Russia is behind it.

Kremlin-controlled media already in a feeding frenzy, rejoicing in the news while seemingly brushing off the allegation.

Maybe she just broke a thermometer during one of the parties with her husband's colleagues. Not very sensational, but Ukrainians and their Western owners literally screamed from such news and began to blame Putin.

But in a different episode, they brought in a Russian parliamentarian accused of poisoning and killing a former Russian agent in London in 2006 to explain how it would be done.

Was something slipped in her tea and she drank it?

There's no other way to poison food and drink other than to pour it in and slip it in somehow.

In the past, the US and others have accused Vladimir Putin of ordering poison attacks on his opponents. Few groups have enraged the Russian leader more than Ukraine's military intelligence, led by Budanov, the former head of Ukraine's foreign intelligence, says.

I believe that this was a personal revenge from Putin. Personal revenge for all the shame that the Defense intelligence under the leadership of Budanov have inflicted on him. Shame that supersedes what Prigozhin has done to him.

Aaron, the Kremlin hasn't issued direct denial of these allegations, but they do seem to be trying to brush them off as well. The Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, he came out and he said, quote, Ukraine blames Russia for everything. All this, of course, as Karyla Budanov's wife is battling those effects of that poisoning.

Aaron. All right. Thank you very much, Fred Pleicombe.