Military intelligence chief has been credited with a series of daring operations against Russia since it launched its invasion.

Published On 2 Jan 2026

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has named military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov as his new chief of staff as Ukraine and the United States work on a 20-point plan that could end Russia’s war.

“Ukraine needs greater focus on security issues, the development of the Defence and Security Forces of Ukraine, as well as on the diplomatic track of negotiations, and the Office of ​the President will primarily serve the ‌fulfillment of these tasks of our state,” Zelenskyy said on X on Friday.

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“Kyrylo has specialized experience in these areas and sufficient strength to deliver results,” ‌he added.

The new post for the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defence was announced at a key moment in the nearly four-year war with Russia after Zelenskyy announced on Wednesday that the US-brokered deal to end the conflict was “90 percent” ready.

Budanov has been credited with a series of daring operations against Russia since it launched an all-out assault against Ukraine in 2022. The 39-year-old has run the GUR since being ⁠appointed to the post by Zelenskyy in August 2020.

A career military intelligence officer, Budanov rose through the defence establishment after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Budanov has become a prominent face of Kyiv’s intelligence effort, regularly appearing in interviews and briefings that mix strategic signalling with psychological pressure on Moscow.

He has frequently warned of Russia’s long-term intentions towards Ukraine and the region, while portraying the war as an existential struggle for the country’s statehood.

Budanov said he had accepted the nomination and would “continue to serve Ukraine”.

“It is an honour and a responsibility for me to focus on critically important issues of strategic security for our state at this historic time for Ukraine,” he said on Telegram.

Procedures to formally appoint him as the president’s chief of staff have been launched, Zelenskyy’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told journalists.

Zelenskyy also announced that Foreign Intelligence Service chief Oleh Ivashchenko will replace Budanov as head of the GUR.

Budanov will succeed Andriy Yermak, a divisive figure in Kyiv. He was decorated as a Hero ‍of Ukraine and known to be Zelenskyy’s most important ally, but he resigned in November after investigators raided his house as part of a sweeping corruption probe.

The scandal involving Yermak, who was also Kyiv’s lead negotiator in US-backed peace talks, fuelled public anger over persistent high-level corruption.

His opponents accused him of accumulating vast power, acting as a gatekeeper regarding access to the president and ruthlessly sidelining critical voices.

Russia attacks Kharkiv

Separately on Friday, a Russian strike on residential buildings in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv wounded 19 people, including a six-month-old baby, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said in a post on Telegram.

The attack came a day after Russia accused Kyiv of a strike on a hotel and a cafe in Ukraine’s occupied south, killing 27 people, and warned of “consequences”. Ukraine said the attack targeted a military gathering that was closed to civilians.

Images captured by the AFP news agency from the site of the Russian strike in Kharkiv showed damaged multistorey buildings, piles of smouldering rubble, and firefighters tackling the blaze.

Zelenskyy called the attack “heinous” and said on social media that “preliminary reports indicate two missiles struck an ordinary residential area”.

“Unfortunately, this is how the Russians treat life and people – they continue killing, despite all efforts by the world, and especially by the United States, in the diplomatic process,” he added.