Zelensky offered Budanov to head the Presidential Office

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed that Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, lead the President’s Office. Zelenskyy did not say who could replace Budanov as head of military intelligence.

The Ukrainian president explained his choice by citing the need to focus on Ukraine’s security, the development of the country’s defense, and the diplomatic track in negotiations.

“The President’s Office will primarily serve to carry out these tasks of our state. Kyrylo has specialized experience in these areas and enough strength to achieve results,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Zelenskyy said he has already instructed the new head of his office—working together with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, and other relevant agencies—to update and submit for approval the strategic foundations for Ukraine’s defense and development.

Presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn, answering journalists’ questions about whether Budanov has been officially appointed as head of the President’s Office, said:

“All formal procedures for appointing Kyrylo Budanov as head of the President’s Office have now been completed.”

Kyrylo Budanov was born in Kyiv on January 4, 1986. The new head of the Ukrainian president’s office studied at the Odesa Institute of Ground Forces (now the Military Academy), graduating in 2007 with the rank of lieutenant.

In 2020, Budanov was appointed deputy director of a department in Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, and in August of the same year he became head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Budanov also leads the coordination headquarters responsible for issues related to holding and exchanging prisoners.

In Russia, Budanov has been arrested in absentia in connection with a case concerning the attack on the Crimean Bridge in October 2022.

The position of head of Ukraine’s President’s Office had been vacant since late November, after Andriy Yermak resigned amid an energy-sector corruption scandal that allegedly involved people close to the head of state. Zelenskyy had said he was considering two candidates for the post—First Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal. The Ukrainian president announced his decision on December 30, promising to clarify the details of the personnel changes in early 2026.