Shmyhal or Fedorov: Zelenskyy on candidates for Head of the Presidential Office
Kyiv • UNN
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is considering Denys Shmyhal and Mykhailo Fedorov as the main candidates for the position of Head of the Presidential Office. However, according to him, the Verkhovna Rada may have difficulties finding replacements for these ministers.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that there are two main candidates for the position of Head of the Office of the President - Minister of Defense Denys Shmyhal and First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, but, according to the President, the Verkhovna Rada is unlikely to find candidates to replace them, reports UNN.
Regarding the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. I held consultations. I think the country saw it, at least the political environment saw it and is following it. I have options: Minister Shmyhal or Minister Fedorov, but there is a challenge here, because the Rada must remove them before I appoint them. I don't want it to be like in the game "Jenga", when you pull out one piece and everything falls apart. The Office of the President is important, but there are other institutions. Therefore, I don't know who can be in the Ministry of Digital Transformation instead of Fedorov, there are many young smart people there. Maybe Mykhailo will find an alternative for himself, but as for the Ministry of Defense - it's more difficult, because the entire budget is there, responsibility is there, the army is there, and today it is priority #1, and I'm not sure that the Rada will be able to find a candidate together with the Cabinet of Ministers.
He noted that the government still cannot find a candidate for the position of Minister of Energy and Justice.
I hope they will close this soon. But nevertheless, we do not rule out these candidacies. As for Kyslytsia... he helps me a lot in the negotiation track right now. This is very important. It is also not easy to pull this direction out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although then the Office will... its direction will be "international affairs". I am not sure about internal issues, whether Kyslytsia is ready to spend time on this, and will be able to. As for other military personnel - these are Budanov, the head of intelligence, and Palisa, who is the deputy head of the Office. Palisa is a very good military man. He understands this direction purely. I am sure that he will eventually understand such things, but for now, it seems to me, he will lack a little of this, and he will be distracted by the war. As for intelligence - Budanov heads intelligence, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. An important direction, he can be the head of the Office, like each of these candidates. We need to think, because he is still engaged in intelligence, we need to understand who will be in his place in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
The President emphasized that "in any case, a choice must be made."
"If it takes a long time, I will get used to being able to cope without the Head of the Office and will live without one. Therefore, a decision must be made," the President summarized.
Recall
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not make a decision on the new Head of the Office of the President until his return from a foreign visit. People's Deputy Yaroslav Zhelezniak reported that the country lived 10 days without the head of the OP after the dismissal of Andriy Yermak.