Ukraine’s defense minister and top spy are reportedly on the chopping block
Kirill Budanov attends the ‘Ukraine Year 2024’ forum in Kiev, Ukraine, February 25, 2024 © Getty Images / Aleksandr Gusev
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is planning on dismissing Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, Ukraine’s Strana news site reported on Friday. The report comes less than two weeks after Zelensky sacked half of the country’s ministers.
According to Strana, both Umerov and Budanov have fallen out of favor with Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak.
“The fact is that there is serious tension between Budanov and [Yermak],” an anonymous source told the news site, describing Budanov as “one of the few remaining influential people in Zelensky’s inner circle who are an alternative to Yermak.” The source did not mention any clash between Umerov and Yermak, but Strana claimed that the defense minister had recently fallen out of favor with pro-Western media outlets and activists in Kiev.
Budanov has led Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Military Intelligence since 2020. Umerov has served as defense minister since last September, when his predecessor, Aleksey Reznikov, was sacked following the Ukrainian military’s disastrous summer counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Throughout the conflict with Russia, Zelensky has typically responded to battlefield setbacks by purging senior military and political leaders. Those purged include the former commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, who like Reznikov was sacked after the failed counteroffensive.
Another wave of firings took place earlier this month, when seven cabinet ministers and multiple other officials were removed from their positions. Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba and Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Olga Stefanishina were among those culled.
While the mass firings came after Ukraine’s cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk Region ground to a halt and Russian forces advanced further in Donbass, some analysts viewed the purge as an attempt by Yermak to concentrate power by replacing the ministers – who are appointed by parliament – with figures loyal to Zelensky’s office.
The firings were viewed in the West as evidence of the “increasing dysfunction” within Zelensky’s government, according to The Economist. Zelensky, however, insisted that a cabinet reshuffle was necessary in order to “give new strength” to state institutions.