KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelensky named Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Friday as his new chief of staff, a move that comes as the U.S. leads a diplomatic effort to end Russia’s nearly 4-year-old invasion.
Announcing the appointment of General Kyrylo Budanov, Zelensky said Ukraine must focus on security issues, developing its defense and security forces and peace talks – areas overseen by the president’s office.
Zelenskyy fired his former chief of staff Andrii Yermak after anti-corruption officials began investigating alleged wrongdoing in the energy sector.
The president framed Budanov’s appointment as part of a broader effort to increase focus on security, defense development and diplomacy.
“Kyrylo has specialized experience in these areas and enough power to achieve results,” Zelenskyy said.
Budanov, 39, said on Telegram that his new position was “both an honor and a responsibility – at a historic moment for Ukraine – to focus on critically important issues of the state’s strategic security.”
In his evening speech, Zelenskyi announced new changes to his team, saying he had proposed Mykhailo Fedorov, the current minister of digital transformation, as the new defense minister.
Fedorov, 34, is credited with leading the introduction of drone technology to Ukraine’s military and introducing several successful e-government platforms in his current role.
He replaces Denys Shmyhal, who took over last July in a major government reshuffle. Zelenskyi thanked Shmyhal and said he would take another role in the government. He also credited the ministry for achieving a production target of more than 1,000 interceptor drones per day in December.
Earlier, Zelensky appointed the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Oleh Ivashchenko, to replace Budanov as intelligence chief.
“Prominent face of Kiev’s intelligence effort”
Budanov is one of the most recognizable and popular figures of the war. He has headed Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known by the acronym GUR, since 2020.
A career military intelligence officer, he rose through the defense system after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. He also participated in special operations and intelligence missions related to fighting Moscow-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine before the February 2022 full-scale invasion. He was reportedly injured during one such operation.
Since the full-scale invasion, Budanov has become a prominent face of Kiev’s intelligence effort, appearing regularly in interviews and briefings that mix strategic signaling with psychological pressure on Moscow. He has frequently warned about Russia’s long-term intentions toward Ukraine and the region, while describing the war as an existential struggle for the country’s statehood.
Under Budanov, the GUR expanded its operational footprint, coordinating intelligence, sabotage and special operations aimed at degrading Russian military capabilities far beyond the front lines. Ukrainian officials have credited military intelligence with operations targeting Russian command structures, logistics centers, energy infrastructure and naval assets, including strikes deep into Russian territory and occupied areas.
His appointment to head the president’s office marks an unusual shift, placing an intelligence chief at the center of Ukraine’s political and diplomatic coordination.
Ihor Reiterovych, an independent political expert based in Kiev, noted that Budanov has participated in the talks with the US and “will fit much more naturally into the general context” of the negotiations.
“Unlike Yermak, he has both experience in this field and has worked in a relevant position,” Reiterovych said, adding that GUR also had some contacts with Russia on issues such as prisoner exchanges.
Russia reports higher death toll from strike
Russian authorities said on Friday that the death toll from what they called a Ukrainian drone strike on a cafe and hotel in a Russian-held village in Ukraine’s Kherson region had risen to 28. Kiev strongly denied that it had targeted civilian targets.
Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia’s main criminal investigation agency, the Investigative Committee, said those killed in the village of Khorly, where at least 100 civilians were celebrating New Year’s Eve, included two minors, while 31 people were hospitalized.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff, Dmytro Lykhovii, denied targeting civilians. He told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne on Thursday that Ukrainian forces “adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law” and “conduct strikes exclusively against Russian military targets, Russian energy and fuel facilities and other legal targets”.
He noted that Russia has repeatedly used disinformation and false statements to disrupt ongoing peace negotiations.
The Associated Press could not independently verify claims made about the attack.
Washington praises progress in negotiations
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday that he, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had a “productive call” with national security advisers from Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine “to discuss advancing the next steps in the European peace process.”
US efforts faced a new hurdle earlier this week when Moscow said it would strengthen its negotiating position after what it said was a long-range drone strike against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in northwestern Russia early Monday.
Kiev has denied attacking Putin’s residence, saying Russia’s claim was a ploy to derail negotiations.
In his New Year’s speech, Zelenskyy said a peace deal was “90 percent ready” but warned that the remaining 10 percent – believed to include key points such as territory – would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live.”
The overnight attacks
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia hit a residential area in Kharkiv with two missiles on Friday, Zelenskyi wrote on his Telegram page, adding that Moscow’s forces “continue killings despite all the efforts of the world, and especially the United States, in the diplomatic process.”
At least 19 people in the east of the city were injured, including a six-month-old child, regional administration chief Oleh Syniehubov said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry denied it had launched any missile or other airborne strikes on Kharkiv on Friday and suggested, without providing evidence, that the damage may have been caused by the detonation of munitions at a weapons depot.
Earlier on Friday, Russia carried out what local authorities called “one of the most massive” drone strikes in Zaporizhzhia. At least nine drones struck the city, destroying dozens of residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure, but without casualties, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional administration.
In total, Russia fired 116 long-range drones into Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, 86 were intercepted and 27 hit their targets.
The Russian ministry said its air defense intercepted 64 Ukrainian drones overnight in several Russian regions.
The Russian city of Belgorod was hit by a Ukrainian missile, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Two women were hospitalized after the strike, which broke windows and damaged an unspecified commercial establishment and a number of cars in the region bordering Ukraine, he said.