President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (known as GUR) Kyrylo Budanov will replace Andriy Yermak as the new head of the Presidentʼs Office (OP).
According to the president, Budanov has “sufficient strength to achieve results”. The president also instructed the new head of the Defense Ministry to update and submit for approval the strategic framework for Ukraine’s defense and development and further steps.
The decree on the appointment is not yet available on the OPʼs website. The Office told reporters that "all formal procedures" on this issue have now been completed.
UPD at 3:00 PM: Budanov said that he accepted Zelenskyʼs offer to head the Office of the President.
"I consider the position of the head of the Presidentʼs Office as another milestone of responsibility to the country. For me, it is an honor and a responsibility, to focus on critically important issues of the strategic security of our state at a historic time for Ukraine," he wrote.
Who is Kyrylo Budanov?
Budanov devoted his entire life to military service. Since 2007, he served in the special forces of the GUR, where he carried out secret missions, including in occupied Crimea.
In 2020, he became the Deputy Director of the Department of the Foreign Intelligence Service, and in August of the same year, the head of GUR.
After the start of the full-scale invasion, he also headed the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the Intelligence Committee under the President of Ukraine.
Yermakʼs dismissal
Andriy Yermak has been the head of the Presidentʼs Office since February 2020, succeeding Andriy Bohdan.
He was searched on the morning of November 28. The official reason was not given, but the Financial Times correspondent in Kyiv Christopher Miller wrote that the searches were related to the “Midas” investigation, a corruption case at “Energoatom”.
Previously, the MP from "Voice" Yaroslav Zheleznyak claimed that Yermak appears on "Mindichʼs recordings" under the code name "Ali Baba".
In the evening of the same day, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported Yermakʼs resignation. The former head of OP himself then stated that Zelensky "was my friend before this job and will remain so after it".
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