Ukraine's Zelenskyy names spy chief Budanov as top aide

KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday named military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov as the new head of his office, after his previous top aide resigned in November over a corruption scandal.

Budanov is a secretive figure who rose from relative obscurity to become head of Kyiv’s formidable spy agency.

The nomination comes at a key moment in the nearly four-year war, with Zelenskyy announcing on Wednesday that a U.S.-brokered deal to end the conflict was “90%” ready.

“At this time, Ukraine needs greater focus on security issues, the development of the Defense and Security Forces of Ukraine, as well as on the diplomatic track of negotiations,” Zelenskyy said.

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

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

“It is an honor 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.

Zelenskyy has also announced that Budanov will be replaced by the current head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Oleg Ivashchenko.

Budanov, when appointed, will succeed Andriy Yermak, who resigned in November after investigators raided his house as part of a sweeping corruption probe.

Yermak was Zelenskyy’s most important ally, but a divisive figure in Kyiv, where his opponents said he had accumulated vast power, gate-kept access to the president and ruthlessly sidelined critical voices.

Referred to as the man “without a smile” in Ukrainian media, the 39-year-old Budanov has revealed little about his background or personal life, and maintains a low profile.

But he is credited with some of Kyiv’s most audacious attacks inside Russia and occupied Ukrainian territory — including an explosion on the Russian-built Crimean Bridge in 2022.

Regarded as a legend among Ukrainians but a wanted criminal in Russia, the combat veteran will now have unparalleled access to Zelenskyy and be at the steering wheel of the presidency — a prospect that Moscow may find troubling.

“We will continue to do our job — to defeat the enemy, defend Ukraine and work to achieve a just peace,” Budanov said after accepting Zelenskyy’s nomination.

Injured three times

Budanov was unknown to the public when he was appointed head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence service in August 2020.

Originally from Kyiv, he studied at a military academy in Odesa before being deployed to fight Russian-backed separatists in east Ukraine in 2014.

The only scrap of information about his activities there was that he took part in a commando raid in Moscow-annexed Crimea in 2016 in which some Russian agents were killed.

Budanov himself does not say much about his service except for revealing he was injured three times — including once with shrapnel close to his heart.

A gunshot wound to the elbow has left him with a visible stiffness in his right arm.

According to a GUR spokesman, he has been the target of “more than 10” attacks.

In 2019, his car exploded in Kyiv — an attack attributed at the time to Russian security services.

He became one of Ukraine’s youngest generals at 35.

Months before Russia’s invasion in February 2022, he predicted a large-scale attack when the rest of the world was in denial about Moscow’s intentions.

He is described by supporters as a master of asymmetrical warfare.

But his prediction that Ukrainian troops would enter Crimea in 2023 failed to materialize and Moscow has since accelerated its advances to take more territory.

Attacks on Russia

Budanov, also dubbed “Buddhanov” by Ukrainian media for his calm demeanor, has claimed several operations inside Russia, including a drone strike in January 2024 on an oil refinery in St. Petersburg — far from the front line.

The operations have made him popular among the Ukrainian public.

At an international conference in Kyiv in September 2023, he received a standing ovation even before his speech and officials crowded to take his photo. In 2024, Zelenskyy made him a “Hero of Ukraine.”

But in Moscow he is a top target.

Since the start of the invasion, Russia has at least twice targeted the military intelligence headquarters in Kyiv, claiming in May 2023 to have killed Budanov.

His wife survived a poisoning in 2023, according to the GUR.

But that has failed to stop Budanov.

He warned on Feb. 1, 2024, that the “number of attacks against Russian infrastructure will probably multiply.”

A few hours later, his agency claimed to have sunk a Russian warship in Crimea.

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By Agence France-Presse