Former Ukraine Top Spy and Currently Presidential Chief of Staff, Popular General Budanov Has Become a Danger to Zelensky’s Rule
April 30, 2026
Keep your enemies closer?
We have been reporting here on TGP on how the corruption scandal involving Volodymyr Zelensky’s close friend and partner Timur Mindich shook Kiev’s political landscape.
Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies NABU and SAPO exposed a $100 million embezzlement and kickback scheme at the state nuclear energy company Energoatom, which led to Mindich fleeing justice to Israel.
To survive the political crisis, the all-powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak was sacrificed by the regime, and Zelensky appointed in his place Kirill Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), and his moderate critic.
As journalist and political analyst Vitaly Ryumshin detailed in RT, this has been a dangerous idea.
Budanov started in his new role keeping a low profile, but soon he started making public statements at odds with those of Zelensky.
“While the president has prepared the country for a prolonged conflict, Budanov has spoken of ongoing negotiations and suggested that peace may not be as distant as many assume. When Zelensky highlighted Ukraine’s technological breakthroughs, Budanov has downplayed them. He has also openly acknowledged the growing difficulties of mobilization, a rare admission from a senior official in a country at war.
At the same time, Budanov has been carefully constructing his public image. In Western media, he is presented as both a war hero and a pragmatic ‘dove’, a man who understands the need to bring the conflict to an end. For domestic audiences, his team promotes stories of personal bravery, portraying him as a hands-on commander who has taken part in operations and narrowly escaped danger.”
Budanov’s ambitions are well known in Kiev, with approval ratings that equal Valeriy Zaluzhny’s, and outpace Zelensky’s.
The former top spy is a new risk for Zelensky, ‘no longer a background figure but a key political actor’.
“The fault line may emerge over the question of negotiations with Russia. As the conflict drags on and the situation at the front becomes more difficult, a growing segment of the Ukrainian elite appears to favor some form of compromise. This sentiment increasingly clashes with Zelensky’s public stance.
History offers many examples of how such tensions can unfold. When a leadership persists in a course that significant parts of the elite consider untenable, pressure builds. Initially, this may take the form of calls for a change in direction. But in more acute cases, it can lead to demands for the leader himself to step aside, or to more drastic outcomes. This is what is often described as a ‘palace coup’.”
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Author: Paul Serran