Reshuffle at Ukraine’s Intelligence Agencies Draws Criticism

Some ask whether the shake-up risks disrupting the agencies’ operations and is political in nature.Gen. Kyrylo Budanov in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2024. He is now the presidential chief of staff, after having served as head of military intelligence.Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesJan. 7, 2026, 7:48 a.m. ETThe directors of Ukraine’s two main intelligence agencies have been credited with daring operations, like an audacious drone attack last summer on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet.Now, both directors have been replaced in the largest reshuffle of the leadership of Ukraine’s intelligence agencies during the war. The moves are part of a broader restructuring that President Volodymyr Zelensky says is needed to prepare the government and military for an extended fight with Russia, if peace talks fail.But 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 S.B.U., 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.”He added that, “I see nothing good for the security of the country and for special operations.”The S.B.U. and the military intelligence agency, the H.U.R., which cooperate closely with American intelligence agencies including the C.I.A., play pivotal roles in the war and in countering Russian espionage. Ukrainian analysts say Mr. Zelensky may be trying to politically sideline their leaders, who are popular generals, before possible elections, which are required in a draft settlement agreement brokered by the Trump administration.The director of the S.B.U., Gen. Vasily Maliuk, has been replaced by Gen. Yevhen Khmara, a former director of special operations. Mr. Zelensky made that move under martial law powers, but it still must be approved by Parliament. A vote is planned for next week.General Maliuk said in a statement that he would remain at the S.B.U. heading special operations. But that would be a less visible role for a man who could potentially join the political opposition to Mr. Zelensky.ImageGen. Vasily Maliuk, the former head of the domestic intelligence agency.Credit...Tetiana Dzhafarova/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA 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 Maliuk 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.While lauded for its operational prowess, the S.B.U. has also cracked down on the opposition at home. General Maliuk has been accused of using his organization to investigate opposition politicians, independent media and anti-corruption activists; he has said he was investigating Russian espionage.Over the summer, the S.B.U. arrested two law enforcement officers as they investigated a corruption scheme involving government ministers and close associates of Mr. Zelensky.Daria Kalenyuk, a high-profile anti-corruption activist, noted in a post on Facebook that while General Maliuk was removed, a deputy director reportedly overseeing such politicized operations, Oleksandr Poklad, had remained in his position. “This is not quality institutional change,” she wrote.The former director of the military intelligence agency, Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, has been replaced by Gen. Oleh Ivashchenko, a former director of the foreign intelligence service who is seen by Ukrainian media commentators as a loyalist to the president. General Budanov has been made chief of staff of the presidential office. That is still a powerful position but one closely aligned politically with the president.Over more than a decade of war with Russia, Ukraine’s domestic and military intelligence agencies rose to become highly competent at secret operations, while also crossing lines into gray zones of international law with assassination programs that answered Russian spy agencies in kind, security analysts say.The Operation Spider’s Web attack by the S.B.U. on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet used drones smuggled through Russia on trucks carrying fake prefabricated homes. Under the leadership of General Budanov, the military intelligence agency deployed a fleet of satellite-controlled exploding speedboats that sank or damaged dozens of Russian ships in the Black Sea.Last winter in Moscow, an exploding scooter was used in the assassination of a Russian military officer. The S.B.U.’s separate fleet of exploding speedboats, called Sea Babies, were named after General Maliuk, whose surname means little one.“I don’t think we will see drastic changes” after the personnel moves at the top, said Oleh Saakian, a political analyst. “Unfortunately, the politicization of the special services is not a Ukrainian invention” and won’t be solved quickly in Ukraine, as elsewhere.As the war has dragged on in Ukraine, he said, “politicians became somewhat military and the military somewhat political, whether they like it or not.”Evelina Riabenko and Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.Andrew E. Kramer is the Kyiv bureau chief for The Times, who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014.SKIP