New year. Old war. New personnel.
In some of the most consequential personnel decisions of his time in office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has embarked on a series of major changes to top positions in his administration. That includes replacing the heads of the two most important intelligence agencies.
Ukrainians are exhausted by Russia’s all-out war, which hits the four-year mark next month. Voters still largely support Zelenskyy, though his approval ratings have slipped, and pressure is building for possible elections if there’s a cease-fire or peace deal.
Corruption scandals have also shaken Zelenskyy’s government, and some political observers say the reshuffle is aimed mainly at bolstering Ukraine in US-led peace talks.
"All things considered, the president is realizing that the negotiation process has not yielded quick results. And now these personnel processes, which had slowed down but were maturing, have all now come in a heap,” Kyiv-based political scientist Oleh Saakyan told RFE/RL.
“We see that the priority is the negotiation process and defense. In fact, this is why these personnel reshuffles are taking place.”
Parliament may vote on the most important positions as early as this coming week.
Here’s a look at who’s in, who’s out, who’s up, who’s down -- and why.
In (and Up): Kyrylo Budanov
The longtime chief of the military intelligence agency known as HUR, Budanov was tapped by Zelenskyy on January 2 to take over from Andriy Yermak as powerful head of the presidential office -- essentially his chief-of-staff.
Tight-lipped and enigmatic, Budanov has cultivated a base of support for his oversight of sabotage operations against Russian targets.
Moscow accused him of orchestrating the 2022 bombing of the Kerch Strait Bridge, which links Russia to Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014.
The bombing, which temporarily damaged the bridge’s roadway and adjacent rail tracks, was hailed as a demonstration of ingenuity.
The agency has also deployed satellite-controlled exploding maritime drones targeting dozens of Russian ships in the Black Sea.
Budanov’s visibility also stoked speculation he could be a political challenger to Zelenskyy, and some experts said Zelenskyy’s pulling Budanov into his administration was a way to head off a potential challenge.
Budanov’s new duties also include leading negotiations with the West aimed at ending Russia’s invasion. Talks are at a critical juncture now, as Ukraine has pushed back on what it sees as some of the more problematic proposals in the US plan released in November 2025. Zelenskyy appointed a former deputy foreign minister as his aide.
Budanov’s replacement will be the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Lieutenant General Oleh Ivashchenko.
Out: Andriy Yermak
Yermak, the man Budanov replaced, had amassed considerable influence -- and plenty of enemies -- before he was pushed out in late November 2025, the casualty of a snowballing corruption scandal involving energy sector kickbacks.
A lawyer and film producer who met Zelenskyy during the Ukrainian president’s former career as an actor and comedian, Yermak was tapped as Zelenskyy’s chief of staff in February 2020, less than a year after the political novice took office.
He grew to be seen as a political enforcer and often inseparable aide to Zelenskyy after the invasion, sleeping in the presidential bomb shelter with him and traveling extensively to meetings abroad.
Yermak’s apartment was searched in November as part of an anti-corruption investigation overseen by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, known as NABU and SAPO.
Before Yermak, the corruption scandal claimed two top cabinet ministers: Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk.
Out (and Over, again): Denys Shmyhal
When he was tapped to head the Defense Ministry in July, Shmyhal had been Zelenskyy’s prime minister, for nearly five years -- since before the Russian invasion.
Prior to that, Shmyhal held a top executive position at the country’s largest private energy company, DTEK.
The prime minister’s office holds less power than the presidency, so the job mainly consists of minding legislative matters in parliament, as well as cabinet meetings.
Currently, Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party holds an absolute majority in the parliament, the Verkhovna Rada -- so in practice, the presidential office runs both the government itself and the legislature.
With Zelenskyy cleaning out ministers linked to the energy scandal, he tapped Shmyhal to take over the Energy Ministry, ostensibly to help clean it up.
Shmyhal is also seen as a stolid technocrat who rarely grants interviews or seeks publicity, in contrast to some other top ministers and officials, so there’s little danger of him eclipsing Zelenskyy.
In (and Up): Mykhaylo Fedorov
One of the youngest ministers in Zelenskyy’s government, Fedorov, 34, was named Ukraine’s first minister of digital transformation in 2019, a position aimed at modernizing the government’s clunky government services, many dating back to the Soviet era.
Equally important was providing transparency for long-opaque bureaucratic processes, helping to root out deep-seated corrupt practices. The reforms -- described as “a state in a smartphone" -- were embraced by Ukrainians, and Fedorov’s popularity and success led to a cabinet promotion, to deputy prime minister, with an expanded portfolio.
With Shmyhal’s shuffle over to the Energy Ministry, Fedorov was named to take over the Defense Ministry.
Fedorov does not have a military background, which has prompted some grumbling among Ukraine’s uniformed armed forces. But neither did Shmyhal.
His promotion, to the military post, was seen as a signal that drone warfare and production -- an area of wartime innovation that Ukraine has excelled at -- would be put into higher gear.
Out (and Down): Vasyl Malyuk
Until his demotion, Malyuk oversaw Ukraine’s largest, and arguably most feared security and intelligence agency, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU.
Malyuk took over in February 2023, after Zelenskyy sacked then-chief, Ivan Bakanov, pointing to suspicions that the service was riddled with Russian spies and moles in the run-up to the invasion a year earlier.
A rival of Budanov’s agency, the SBU was known for rooting out spies and saboteurs, but also conducting assassination and other operations.
In June 2025, the service was credited with running a sabotage operation that involved scores of drones being concealed in civilian trucks and launched at Russian air bases thousands of kilometers from the border.
The preceding December, the SBU was accused of detonating an electric scooter parked on a Moscow sidewalk, killing a top Russian general.
But the service’s sometimes shadowy operations also drew criticism.
In July 2025ssssssssssssss, the service arrested several investigators who were the backbone of the effort by NABU and SAPO to tackle endemic corruption. The SBU accused a number of them of having ties to Russia.
That move, along with legislation that stripped the two organizations of their independence, hit a nerve among Ukrainians and particularly the younger generation, which widely embraced their mission to root out graft.
Under pressure from street protests, Zelenskyy backed down, and endorsed legislation restoring their independence.
Malyuk had reportedly initially refused to resign when ordered to do so by Zelenskyy, and a number of prominent military and security officials spoke out in his support. They included the commander of Ukraine’s drone operations.
“I am leaving my post as head of the Security Service,” he said, announcing his job switch a few days later. “I will stay in the system to carry out operations that continue to inflict maximum damage on the enemy. A strong, modern intelligence service is key to our state’s security.”
The newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda reported that Malyuk’s ouster may have been Yermak’s doing.
His replacement, Major General Yevhen Khmara, commanded the SBU’s elite special operations unit, Alfa.
