ANALYSIS: Zelensky’s ‘Dream Team’ Revolution – The Wartime Reset (Part 2)

In Part 1, Kyiv Post analyzed how President Volodymyr Zelensky’s team has changed over time. Now a new stage of personnel changes has begun, which may become the most significant since 2019-20, when his team was almost completely replaced.

What is to be gained from reshuffling some of the top technocrats and security chiefs – Denys Shmyhal, Mykhailo Fedorov, Vasyl Malyyuk and Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov? Who else might in store, and why?

End of the Yermak era. Or maybe not?

The first question political observers have asked since the “resignation” of the head of the Office of the President (OP), Zelensky’s “gray cardinal,” Andriy Yermak, is whether this highly influential figure will really leave the scene.

For a long time, possible candidates for his replacement have been discussed. 

Many journalists, including the author of this article, believed that it would most likely be a second-tier bureaucrat, experienced in behind-the-scenes affairs, and that Yermak would most likely be able to retain part of his influence over the OP, at least through people who would remain there.

The appointment of Budanov came as a surprise to everyone. 

Yes, he was among the candidates, but first, as a longtime military operational leader, he is not as experienced in bureaucratic management as Fedorov or Shmyhal. Secondly, Budanov is the head of one of the most successful Ukrainian military agencies – the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), which consistently executes successful deep strikes on Russian territory, sabotage operations, and collects and analyzes up-to-date intelligence.

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However, there are four other compelling reasons for appointing Budanov as head of the OP. First, he is a prominent political figure and, according to all recent polls, among the top three leaders in terms of public support. According to June 2025 polls conducted by the SOCIS agency, former Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny was trusted by 71% of Ukrainians, HUR chief Budanov by 55%, and President Zelensky by 49%.

According to politicians interviewed by the Kyiv Post, Budanov’s appointment may be either an attempt to neutralize a competitor or to create a shared political future. Still, its contours – whether it will be some political project or something else – are as yet unknown.

Another reason for Budanov’s appointment is his reputation in Washington. Budanov has not been involved in any corruption scandals, unlike the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) – discussed later. Also, according to Kyiv Post sources, the White House has long been impressed by HUR’s successes.

Budanov already has experience negotiating with the Russians in the Middle East, and it is obvious that his first steps, including his arrival for negotiations in Paris, are an attempt to correct Yermak’s course. 

The Yermak factor is the third reason for Budanov’s appointment. As previously reported, during Yermak’s tenure, the OP regularly launched political and verbal attacks on Budanov, seeking to remove him. By appointing the target of the previous OP’s staff as its new boss, Zelensky appears to be veering away from Yermak’s influence.

And here it will be important to see whether Budanov begins purging the OP of Yermak’s people. So far, no purge is evident.

This will show whether Zelensky is ready to change the principles in governing the state. He announced a reform and restructuring of the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) – a law enforcement body that in recent years has found itself at the center of several scandals, including the persecution of anti-corruption activists and the publication of intimate photos from a phone seized during a search of one of them. 

The DBR, like the Office of the Prosecutor General, works closely with the OP. So far, despite the promise to reform the DBR, the president has not replaced its head.

Finally, Budanov’s loyalty to the state was on his side. Despite constant pressure from the OP during Yermak’s tenure, Budanov always came to the president’s aid when it was needed. For example, several months ago, he personally went to stabilize the situation in Pokrovsk, which was important on the eve of negotiations with the US delegation.

All interviewed sources say that with Budanov’s arrival, the transparency of the OP’s work should definitely improve and convey undistorted information to the president. Improving the work of the OP could very well be Budanov’s primary task, since the quality of Zelensky’s overall accomplishments depends on it.

Shmyhal, Fedorov, and Malyuk: The essence of the rotations 

The transfer of Shmyhal, a former prime minister, from minister of defense to minister of energy, and his replacement by Fedorov, minister of digital transformation, is also quite logical, though somewhat chaotic at first glance.

Shmyhal, an experienced manager who served as prime minister longer than anyone else in Ukraine’s history, spent only a few months as minister of defense. However, according to Kyiv Post sources within the ministry, his main responsibilities were to ensure order and enhance the organization of its operations. Now he is returning to his previous sphere before entering government service.

Previously, Shmyhal had worked in the energy sector. From January 2017 to January 2018, he was deputy general director for social issues at PJSC “DTEK Zakhidenergo,” and from January 2018 to July 2019, he worked as director of the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant – one of the largest TPPs in Ukraine.

President Zelensky now wants him to improve the protection of the energy system, although sources say that Shmyhal will also do in the Ministry of Energy what he did in the Ministry of Defense – restore order, which is very important after the corruption scandal that involved two former ministers of energy.

Shmyhal, as the “President’s firefighter,” has changed so many positions that it has become a meme among Ukrainians.

Jokes such as “Shmyhal always carries his employment record book with him because he doesn’t remember which position he holds today” are popular on social media.

The appointment of Fedorov from his former digital transformation post signals future changes in the Ministry of Defense, which needs to transition to a new level of operation – drones have gone from being a peripheral component of the war to its key. 

Fedorov, who has long run procurement and production programs for technological systems, will likely shift the Ministry of Defense’s objectives toward strengthening AFU technological components and accelerate the digitization of the military bureaucracy, which is advancing successfully but is slowed by systemic friction.

The dismissal of Malyuk from the position of head of the SBU remains the most controversial decision of the president at the moment. First, it is obvious that it had been planned for a long time.

On the eve of the dismissal, several influential military figures spoke out, such as the AFU’s Joint Forces Command head, Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapaty; National Corps far-right political party founder and leader, as well commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces 3rd Army Corps, Brig. Gen. Andriy Biletsky; the commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), Maj. Robert “Madyar” Brovdi; and the commander of the Ukrainian National Guard 1st Azov Corps, Col. Denys “Redis” Prokopenko, spoke out.

They all said that under Malyuk the SBU had turned into a formidable force at the front. In addition, Malyuk was the one who managed to take control of the security service and consolidate it at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, while the then-head Ivan Bakanov did not perform well. 

They stress that Malyuk planned and executed Operation Spiderweb, a highly regarded, successful strike against Russia’s nuclear triad that led to a significant reduction in the Kremlin’s strategic bomber fleet.

At the end of 2023, the SBU’s Department of National Security Protection surveilled investigative journalists from Denys Bihus’s newsroom – but did so with such incompetence that the journalists themselves exposed the operation. The fact that an entire SBU department was involved in this activity during a full-scale war shocked citizens.

Another controversial episode for the SBU was its participation in raids against the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) in July 2025, when, reportedly, under the pretext of “combating Russian influence,” the SBU allegedly began detaining NABU investigators who were working to expose a corruption scheme involving businessman Timur Mindich, according to the NABU official website.

According to various unverified accounts, there may be plans to transfer Malyuk to another position. Whether or not this will happen is uncertain. He himself wrote on Facebook that he remains within the SBU system. 

Malyuk will be replaced by Maj. Gen. Yevhen Khmara, previously the head of the SBU’s special unit Alpha.

Conclusions

Overall, the changes in the OP appear to reflect Zelensky’s desire to revamp his inner team by strengthening competence, correcting the mistakes of the Yermak era, and ensuring that the right person ends up in the right place at the right time, with maximum benefit.

Budanov, a savvy intelligence officer, has been sent to negotiations as Zelensky’s new chief of staff. His newly appointed deputy, Serhiy Kyslytsia, is a seasoned diplomat. He served as deputy foreign minister from 2014-19 and spent five years in New York, 2019-25, as Ukraine’s UN representative. On paper, at least, the two should be complementary. 

The position of Rustem Umerov, the current negotiator in the US, however, may come under increasing scrutiny. Generally considered “Yermak’s man,” Umerov, the former defense minister from 2023 up until six months ago, has been implicated tangentially in a number of potential corruption scandals, including failure to declare property he owns in the US. Speculation as to why Zelensky keeps him on the negotiating team tends to stress, at best, Umerov’s knowledge of very sensitive defense issues and his familiarity with the businessman mentality of President Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy; and, at worst, some more nefarious type of leverage Umerov may have over Zelensky. 

Denys Shmyhal, after streamlining the work of the Ministry of Defense, will be tasked to tidy up the notoriously corrupt energy sector. 

Whereas the 34-year-old Fedorov, considered somewhat of a wizard in implementing technological innovations, will be expected to transform the military.

A new face, that of Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former deputy prime minister and foreign minister, will join Zelensky as an advisor on recovery. An ethnic Ukrainian who covered Russia and Ukraine as a journalist in her youth, she will be expected to encourage best practices in a wide range of sectors. Her experience in Ottawa should enable her to maintain contacts with global business elites.

Only Malyuk’s dismissal has garnered widespread rebuke against Zelensky – mainly from the military. Some speculate that we may see the man behind so many audacious operations moved to a leadership position involving even more covert expertise –in the foreign intelligence service, for example.

Perhaps most importantly, the status of Yermak’s people remains uncertain. There have been no dismissals of his hand-picked entourage from the OP, the DBR or the SBU. But as the president himself announced, the process of personnel changes is not over yet.