Two candidates are being considered as successors to the dismissed Andriy Yermak in the leadership position in the presidential administration. These are First Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and Defense Minister Denys Shmygal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this, quoted by "Strana".
However, he added that there is a problem: "Someone must replace them in their current positions".
Fedorov, who is also the Minister of Digital Transformation, and Shmygal, a former prime minister, were previously named among Yermak's potential successors by "Ukrainska Pravda", Axios, Insider.ua and Verkhovna Rada member Oleksiy Honcharenko. According to "Ukrainska Pravda", Fedorov was a leading candidate until recently, but his "radical views on personnel purges in the presidential administration" and "excessively long list of reforms" made Zelensky hesitate.
Fedorov also faces competition from Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, and Serhiy Kyslitsa, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the newspaper reported. Another factor weighing against Shmyhal is that he recently took over the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and has only just begun to "bring order to the chaos at work", the newspaper wrote.
The head of the presidential cabinet was dismissed in late November amid a corruption scandal in the energy sector, which implicated the president's inner circle. After his resignation, Yermak described himself as an honest and honorable person, said he did not intend to "create problems" for the president, and announced his plans to go to the front.
A few days ago, Zelensky announced that he would make a decision on Yermak's successor in the near future. On December 8, "Ukrainska Pravda" reported that the president could make a final decision this week.