The President's Office after Yermak: Ukrainian organisation reveals changes to advisor teams

The Chesno Movement, a Ukrainian organisation focused on combating political corruption and holding those in power to account, has obtained an updated list of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's advisers and representatives, as well as the members of the team of Kyrylo Budanov, who now heads the President's Office following the resignation of Andrii Yermak. Chesno received the list from the Office of the President of Ukraine in response to a request for information.

Source: the Chesno Movement

Quote: "The system of advisers to the president and the President's Office has long been one of the least transparent parts of public administration… Having received a response to a new information request, we can now see who has remained in their positions and which new names are on the updated list."

Details: According to the information, 15 people currently work directly with the president: one full-time adviser, six non-staff advisers, five authorised advisers, and three presidential representatives at state bodies.

Chesno notes that the most significant changes concern the non-staff advisers. In 2024 there were three – Andrew Mac, Yurii Kostiuk and Andrii Shevchenko – but the list has now expanded to six.

Kostiuk and Shevchenko have been joined by Oleksandr Kamyshin (strategic issues), Oksana Markarova (recovery and investment), Oleksandr Kubrakov (infrastructure and community relations) and former Canadian deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland (economic development).

Meanwhile, Andrew Mac, a Ukrainian-American lawyer specialising in international law, is no longer on the list, having been dismissed by Zelenskyy on 20 January 2026.

Chesno also points out that former government officials Kamyshin, Markarova and Kubrakov, who received informal advisory roles after leaving office, have effectively retained some influence over state policy, but outside the government hierarchy and parliamentary oversight mechanisms.

"Particular attention should be paid to the career progression of Dmytro Lytvyn: previously a non-staff adviser to Andrii Yermak, he has moved to a full-time position as the president's communications adviser and is currently the only full-time adviser on the list," Chesno noted.

The organisation also examined Kyrylo Budanov's team, which consists of at least 12 people: eight deputy heads of the Office, two full-time advisers, Serhii Nykyforov, the president's press secretary, and Chief of Staff Mariia Vitushok.

"Kyrylo Budanov has noticeably refreshed his team. Unlike with the previous team, there are no non-staff advisers in the Office, and instead of Andrii Yermak's four female advisers, there are now only two advisers – Vitalii Melnykov and Iryna Trofymchuk. Curiously, there is no publicly available information about them," Chesno said.

Budanov has also appointed a new first deputy head of the Office – former first deputy foreign minister Serhii Kyslytsia. Iryna Mudra, Ihor Zhovkva, Olena Kovalska and Oleh Tatarov have retained their positions.

However, the controversial Rostyslav Shurma is not on the updated list of deputy heads.

Despite the personnel changes, Chesno stresses that this cannot be said to be a systemic overhaul of the advisory institution.

"In practice, the institution of advisers continues to function as a 'grey zone' of power – a space where decisions are formed but responsibility for them is blurred. And this, rather than the individuals themselves, is the key problem that remains unresolved even after the change in leadership of the President's Office," Chesno concluded.

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