New head of President's Office maintained contact with US in parallel with top aide Yermak – UP

Iryna Balachuk, Roman Romaniuk - 5 January, 09:26

Kyrylo Budanov and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photo: Office of the President

Kyrylo Budanov, the new Head of the Office of the President, in his previous role as head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, was one of the few Ukrainian officials who maintained contact with members of US President Donald Trump's team in parallel with former head of the President's Office Andrii Yermak, who tried to keep control of all negotiations.

Source: Article from Ukrainian Pravda "Everyone will be reshuffled. Why Zelenskyy needs a 'reset' of Budanov, Fedorov, Shmyhal, Maliuk and others" (a translation of this article is coming soon)

Quote from the article: "In his previous position, the new head of the Office of the President was one of the few who dared to maintain unofficial contacts with various camps in Trump's administration: from General Keith Kellogg to Vice President Vance's team. Although Yermak constantly tried to block these channels, both directly and via the president."

Details: According to UP sources, over the past year, Budanov has repeatedly sought to convey to Zelenskyy the real picture of how Yermak is perceived in the US, and how his negotiating style and his general competence to do such work are assessed.

Budanov has two major advantages in the eyes of the Americans: he has a realistic view of the state of the war and has not been involved in recent high-profile corruption scandals. This "makes it possible to negotiate with him adequately without any reputational risks".

"Additionally, Budanov is almost the only person in the country with direct working contacts with the Russians. He communicated with them on prisoner exchanges and, for example, held separate face-to-face talks in the UAE during the latest wave of diplomatic efforts by the new US team," the article notes.

The article claims that the main changes expected from Budanov's appointment as head of the Office of the President are the strengthening of the negotiating team and the "decentralisation" of contacts with the Americans.

It is also noted that for Budanov himself, the foreign track was one of the main reasons for accepting the new role.

As Head of the President's Office, Budanov will effectively lead negotiations on Ukraine's side regarding ending the war, guarantees from the US and partners, and other security issues.

Background:

On 2 January, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Kyrylo Budanov as head of the Office of the President of Ukraine to replace Andrii Yermak, who had been dismissed.
Budanov accepted Zelenskyy's offer of the role of head of the President's Office, calling it an honour.

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