In the Office of the President, the dismissal of Budanov, Umyerov, and Syrskyi is being discussed

In the Office of the President, the dismissal of Budanov, Umyerov, and Syrskyi is being discussed

Forbes-Ukraine informs about this citing its sources.

Budanov might lose his position in the coming months, although a final decision has not yet been made.

Discussions on this issue have been ongoing for at least a month. He has "strained relations" with Yermak and Syrskyi, the president is dissatisfied with a number of unsuccessful DIU operations, and overall, the Office of the President is irritated by the public profile of the head of military intelligence.

"Yermak doesn’t like people with media weight and support from partners," notes a source in the defense sector.

The conflict with Syrskyi arose because the DIU does not share certain intelligence data with the commander-in-chief.

The Kursk operation, in which the DIU did not partake, is considered indicative, despite earlier attacks on the Russian border by Russian volunteers with the help of intelligence.

The Presidential Office is displeased with the DIU’s desire to take on processes unrelated to intelligence, such as drone production. There is also mention of a case involving fraud in arms procurement by the DIU’s company "Spetstechnoexport." Currently, the state is suing it for a minimum of 820 million hryvnias.

Additionally, the Office is irritated by Budanov’s periodic forecasts on specific end dates for the war, which harm Zelenskyy and provoke a negative reaction from society.

"Such publicity for a man managing intelligence is absurd," states the source.

Oleh Ivashchenko, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, is once again named as a potential candidate to replace Budanov.

There is dissatisfaction with Defence Minister Umyerov, as a year after his appointment, "chaos" reigns in the department, and he failed to establish a stable ministry operation.

Specifically, there are complaints about his idea to merge two agencies for the procurement of weapons and equipment for the Armed Forces, though procurement still faces delays.

Manufacturers complain that "government procurement is chaotic, making it impossible to plan work ahead," leading to contract disruptions, a lack of funding, reduced production, and many companies moving it abroad.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Office is still determining whether this chaos results from Umyerov’s actions.

Potential candidates to replace him are Vice Prime Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and the First Deputy Minister of Defence Ivan Havrylyuk, who was recently appointed by Zelenskyy to the Staff, which had never been done with deputy ministers before.

The replacement of commander Syrskyi was discussed back in the summer, and the Presidential Office even conducted interviews with generals.

The main complaint against Syrskyi is a "cold attitude" towards developing the army’s unmanned component.

The creation of a new branch of the military - the Drone Systems Forces - was proposed by Zelenskyy. Young General Vadym Sukharevskyi was appointed as their head. Syrskyi believes a competitor is being created for him. However, Sukharevskyi allegedly denies his ambitions to become the commander-in-chief.

This led to the appointment of ex-navy general Roman Hladkyi as the chief of staff of the DSF, which the General Staff appointed without Sukharevskyi’s approval. Relations between Syrskyi and Sukharevskyi can now be considered "working."

At the same time, a source claims that the tension between Zelenskyy and Syrskyi dissipated after the start of the Kursk operation, and now there are no plans to remove the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.