Lieutenant-General Kyrylo Budanov, famous for his cold stare and his accurate prediction of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, has emerged as one of the most trusted and patriotic leaders in Ukraine. Photo / Serhiy Morgunov, for The Washington Post
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s appointment of Lieutenant-General Kyrylo Budanov, the director of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, to head his presidential office, prioritises battlefield knowledge and public popularity amid intense United States pressure on Kyiv for a peace deal with Russia.
The pick also seeks to dispel concerns over the corruption scandal that ousted the previous top aide, Zelenskyy’s close friend Andriy Yermak.
“Ukraine needs greater focus on security issues, the development of the Defence and Security Forces of Ukraine, as well as the diplomatic track in negotiations, and the Office of the President will primarily serve the fulfilment of these tasks of our state,” Zelenskyy said in his announcement at the weekend.
The job, effectively Ukraine’s equivalent of the presidential chief of staff, has been unfilled since Yermak, who had wielded extraordinary power across all aspects of the Government, resigned in November just hours after anti-corruption investigators raided his apartment as part of a widening probe into Zelenskyy’s inner circle. The investigation threatened to plunge the wartime leader into political peril.
Yermak, who had no political experience and was appointed in 2020 after working with Zelenskyy at his production studio, was despised by many Ukrainians who accused him of holding undue influence and operating with an extremely heavy hand.
Many in Washington also saw Yermak as pugnacious and controlling, describing him a hurdle to co-operation. He has essentially disappeared from public life since stepping down.
Budanov, 39, makes for a significantly different character.
As a soldier, he was wounded several times during the first phase of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which began in 2014.
And he has been credited with participating in, and more recently with directing, daring operations behind enemy lines.
Budanov took over his role as the head of the military intelligence agency, known as GUR, in 2020.
Famous for his cold stare and his accurate prediction of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, he has emerged in wartime as one of the most trusted and patriotic leaders in Ukraine.
That makes him one of the biggest threats to Russia, which repeatedly has tried to kill him.
Budanov is also widely viewed as having political ambitions, although his focus has remained on the front line and countering Russian influence abroad, including by deploying troops under his command to Africa to engage with Russian mercenaries.
Perhaps most importantly, he has not been implicated in any corruption scandals.
Just this week, GUR took credit for staging the death of the notorious pro-Ukrainian commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, a group of Russian soldiers who fight for Ukraine.
The operation involved transmitting multiple drone videos purportedly showing the commander, Denis Kapustin, being killed, then claiming a bounty of US$500,000 that Russia had put on his head, which GUR said will be reinvested in the defence against Russia’s invasion.
Details of the faked death of Kapustin, who had a history of violent, far-right extremism before founding the Russian Volunteer Corps, could not be independently verified.
During a briefing at which Kapustin appeared by video link, Budanov told him: “I congratulate you on returning to life.”
Announcing that he had accepted Zelenskyy’s job offer, Budanov wrote: “I see the position of Head of the Office of the President as another line of responsibility to the country”.
“For me, it is both an honour and a responsibility - at a historic moment for Ukraine - to focus on critically important issues of our state’s strategic security,” he posted on Telegram. “Thank you for your trust!”
Budanov’s appointment “means that Zelenskyy is concerned about their negotiations with Russia and their war strategy in the future and their security, including probably even his personal security when it comes to a transition of power and possible things like an election or whatever may happen,” said Olena Tregub, a civil society activist and secretary of Nako, a nongovernmental anti-corruption commission.
Budanov was understood to have conflict with Yermak, signalling that “Zelenskyy can choose people who have different approaches”, Tregub added.
“Hopefully, the power of Budanov will be, indeed, more limited to … matters that are related directly to the President and, of course, focusing on the issue of the war,” she said.
A poll conducted by the market research company Ipsos for the newly founded Detente Centre for Peace and Freedom, a US-based non-profit, found that Ukrainians believed corruption was more damaging to their country than shelling, mobilisation or poverty. The board chairman of the Detente Centre, Christopher Nixon Cox, also serves on the board of the Richard Nixon Foundation, which gave US President Donald Trump a peace award last year.
The poll, which surveyed 2000 Ukrainians and is set to be released this month, assessed that retired General Valery Zaluzhny, who previously headed Ukraine’s armed forces and now serves as ambassador to the United Kingdom, is the front-runner for any future presidential election at 23% - with Zelenskyy second at 20%, former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko third at 9% and Budanov close behind him at 7%. And 17% of respondents said it was hard to say who they would vote for at this time.
Respondents overwhelmingly cited ending the war as the most important issue for any candidate, with fighting corruption second.
A former Trump Administration official who worked on Russia and Ukraine said Budanov was a good choice because he was respected by political appointees and by career staff across the US Government.
“Budanov is one of those people who is well-respected across the different factions in the [Trump] Administration,” said the former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Despite his reputation for being aggressive and hawkish, Budanov played a quiet but important role in peace talks in early 2025, the former official said.
“When you actually engage with him on how the war’s going to end, he’s probably one of the more realistic and sober guys,” the former official added.
That contrasted sharply, the former official said, with Yermak, who struck his US counterparts as antagonistic and self-absorbed.
“Instead of looking out for what is best for Ukraine, [Yermak was] ultimately looking out for what’s best for himself and Zelenskyy,” the former official added.
“Looks like this marks the real end of Yermak’s era,” said one senior European diplomat, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Appointing Budanov is a “brilliant step PR-wise”, the diplomat added, given his “popularity and the recognition that national security and defence-related tasks will continue dominating Ukraine’s agenda for the upcoming period”.
One former senior Ukrainian official said he believes that Budanov is more essential in his current role at GUR, but that the appointment indicates that Zelenskyy is “looking for another Yermak-style, strong individual” to serve in a role more akin to a vice-president than a head of office. In Ukraine, the speaker of parliament is first in the line of presidential succession.
Budanov will differ from Yermak, however, in several key ways, including that he “has a chance to become a successor”, the former official said.
The official expressed hope that Zelenskyy, who has signalled he will not serve another term after the war is over, had “calculated the risks and decided to live with this”.
Zelenskyy could even see Budanov as “a first step towards a ‘successor’ project with some personal guarantees attached”, the former official said - or a chance to “burn down his most promising competitor”.
Olexiy Haran, a political analyst, said that public trust in Budanov is key to his appointment but what remains to be seen is how he will mesh with other key figures in the office as he adjusts to a new role.
“He’s a manager, high manager of intelligence sphere,” Haran said. “What about other things - economy, regional politics?”
Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst, said Budanov’s influence will depend on how he approaches the new role, where a military-style command “will not appeal to everyone and could provoke resistance”.
“His influence will be shaped primarily by personal authority, not merely by the office he holds,” Fesenko said.
And while Budanov may play a more public-facing role in peace negotiations than before, “Ukraine’s overall negotiating strategy will not change”.
“Budanov also understands the necessity of bringing the war to an end through negotiations,” Fesenko said.
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