Chief of Zelenskyy's office explains why he did not dismiss former head Yermak's deputies

Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has explained that he did not dismiss the deputies of his predecessor, Andrii Yermak, after taking office because he believes in institutional continuity, the destruction of which would have brought all processes to a halt while new people learned their jobs.

Source: Budanov in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Nataliia Moseichuk

Quote: "I changed everything, but I did not change the people… First of all, I am a supporter of an institutional approach. An institutional approach means institutional continuity. You cannot ensure institutional continuity by coming in, telling everyone to 'f*ck off', throwing them out and bringing in others… You can do that, but it creates certain problems.

Problem number one is time. It would take at least six months, and many mistakes would be made during those six months… I have no right to experiment, to throw everyone out, destroy all institutional memory, halt all processes and then wait for people to 'figure things out'… I took the classic institutional approach: to manage what is already there and gradually make changes."

Details: Budanov was responding to Moseichuk's question about why, after taking over from Yermak, he had not replaced Yermak's deputies and had "changed absolutely nothing".

According to Budanov, quite a few new people, including military personnel, have joined the President's Office at the middle-management level during this time.

When asked about situations in which military personnel had effectively "hidden" their rank insignia and become civilians, thereby shaping the configuration of power, Budanov said that he remains an active serviceman.

Background:

• On 27 August, Budanov commented for the first time on reports that his name came up in recordings of conversations involving his deputy Iryna Mudra, who is implicated in the latest case brought by the anti-corruption agencies. He said: "Let the court figure out who heard what where."
• In recordings from the anti-corruption investigation known as Operation Forrest Gump, Iryna Mudra can be heard referring to "the leadership" while discussing how to arrange and launder bail money for former minister Herman Halushchenko, a defendant in the Midas case. However, it is not yet known exactly who was referred to as "the leadership" in the recordings.

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