Zelensky’s Ousting of Popular Intel Leaders Is Drawing Heavy Criticism – Kiev Leader Accused of Clearing the Field of Competitors Before Eventual Election

 

Zelensky is being criticized for his Intel reshuffle.

Is Zelensky getting rid of the competition?

While the eyes of the world are fixated on US moves in Venezuela or Greenland, and on the popular uprising in Iran, the war in Ukraine is unfolding, brutal as ever.

But, getting more exposure than the actual movements in the ground, with Russian forces making gains in the southern Zaporozhie region, it’s the internal machinations of the Kiev regime that is being talked about.

We have reported here on TGP about the removal of the two most powerful directors of intelligence in Ukraine: SBU’s Vasily Malyuk and Kyrylo Budanov from the military intel agency GUR.

The two men were credited with successful operations and countless assassinations.

Their ousting is part of leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s largest intelligence reshuffle of the war.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has launched a major shake up of Ukraine’s security apparatus, appointing his top military intelligence chief as head of the presidential office and nominating a new defence minister.

Our updated story, w/ @fabrice_deprez https://t.co/p4qN549Pco via @FT

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) January 2, 2026

But the reaction to the changes has been mixed at best.

The New York Times reported:

“Critics say the shake-up risks disrupting operations already underway and may have been made in part for political reasons.

’I see it as removing two competent leaders’, said Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, a former director of the SBU, Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, and now a member of Parliament in the political opposition. ‘During the war, my suggestion would be to keep, not shake up, the leadership’. I see nothing good for the security of the country and for special operations.”

1/ Fresh analysis in German about Ukraine’s fresh re-shuffle: Zelensky is recalibrating the presidential vertical to manage unfreezing politics during wartime. By elevating Budanov, he ties a potential challenger, reinforcing legitimacy while accommodating shifting power dynamics

— Balazs Jarabik (@BalazsJarabik) January 6, 2026

The domestic intel agency SBU and the military counterpart GUR cooperate closely with the CIA and MI6, trying to counter Russian espionage.

Ukrainian analysts have torched Zelensky for politically sidelining popular generals before possible elections agreed to in the draft settlement brokered by the Donald J. Trump administration.

“A half-dozen serving military generals, including a commander of joint forces in eastern Ukraine, had appealed over the weekend in statements posted online for Mr. Zelensky to retain General Malyuk as director, citing his expertise on operations.

Ukrainian civil society activists watched the shuffle closely at the S.B.U., and some said it fell short of overhauls that outside analysts and the political opposition say are needed to curb abuses in the agency.”