Zelensky reveals candidates for new head of Ukraine's Presidential Office
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Dec. 8 named the candidates for the position of Presidential Office head, following the dismissal of his former chief of staff Andriy Yermak.
These include Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine's defense minister and previously the longest-serving prime minister, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, Deputy Presidential Office head and ex-commander Pavlo Palisa, and Sergiy Kyslytsya, the first deputy foreign minister and one of Ukraine's key negotiators.
The news comes more than a week after Yermak's resignation on Nov. 28 amid Ukraine's largest corruption scandal, which hit close to the president's inner circle.
Zelensky announced the reboot of the Presidential Office in the wake of the investigation. Over the past week, he has met with officials who are being considered as potential Yermak's successors.
"We discussed the work formats of the (Presidential) Office, as well as interaction with other state institutions... A decision regarding the new head of the office will be made in the near future," Zelensky said on Dec. 4.
Speaking with journalists in London on Dec. 8, Zelensky said the decision is complicated by the need to consider who would take over the candidates' current positions.
"In any case, for some time, I will be able to manage on my own without a head of the office," the president added.
Appointed in 2020, Yermak has gathered unprecedented influence within the Ukrainian government. Despite long-standing criticism, Zelensky previously said he trusted Yermak and dismissed claims that the latter wielded excessive power.
Lawmakers and experts the Kyiv Independent spoke with argue that the most important issue is not who becomes the next head of the Presidential Office, but whether the office will continue to wield the same influence it did under Yermak.
"The key issue is what the functions of the President's Office will be," Olexiy Haran, politics professor at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy and research advisor at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, told the Kyiv Independent.
