The key post has been vacant since Andrey Yermak resigned amid a scandal
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has announced that he has appointed the head of the country’s military intelligence (HUR), Kirill Budanov, as his new chief of staff.
The key post has been vacant since the previous head of the presidential office, Andrey Yermak, resigned amid a massive corruption scandal in late November.
Zelensky said on social media on Friday that he had held a meeting with Budanov in Kiev and offered him the job.
Ukraine currently needs “greater focus” on security, on the development of its armed forces and “on the diplomatic track of negotiations,” he said.
According to the Ukrainian leader, he selected Budanov as his chief of staff because the 39-year-old “has specialized experience in these areas and sufficient strength to deliver results.”
Budanov said in a post on Telegram that he had accepted Zelensky’s offer to become the head of the presidential office. He called the appointment an “honor and a responsibility,” promising to work on improving the country’s strategic security and achieving what he described as a “just peace” with Russia.
Yermak, who had been viewed as one of the most influential political figures in the country, stepped down in late November after his house was raided by agents from anti-graft bodies.
A few weeks previously, investigators revealed a scheme allegedly involving Zelensky’s longtime associate Timur Mindich and high-ranking Ukrainian officials at nuclear operator Energoatom. They said Mindich ran a $100 million kickback scheme in the energy sector, which heavily depends on Western aid.
Budanov, who is a former special forces soldier, has headed HUR since August 2020. In December 2023, a Moscow court ordered his arrest on terrorism charges after accusing the spy chief of masterminding over 100 “terrorist attacks” on Russian soil.
He reacted to being put on the wanted list by saying that “we’ve been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.”
Despite emerging as a hardliner in the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, Budanov later adopted a more realistic approach. Last summer, he acknowledged that Kiev would not be able to turn the tide on the battlefield against Russia.
Earlier this week, the spy chief told the broadcaster Suspilne that Ukraine needed to swiftly enter talks with Moscow. “A negotiation process is definitely needed and cannot be avoided anyway,” he said.
Budanov enjoys high public support in Ukraine. A study by the pollster SOCIS in late December showed that he would beat Zelensky, 56.2% to 43.8%, if the two ran head-to-head in an election. The country’s former top general, Valery Zaluzhny, who now serves as Kiev’s ambassador to the UK, would do even better, getting 64.2% according to the poll.
The Investigative Committee has said it is probing the attack in Kherson Region as a terrorist act
The death toll from the Ukrainian drone strike on civilians celebrating New Year’s Eve in Kherson Region has increased to 27, and 31 others are reported as wounded, Russia’s Investigative Committee has said. Initial reports spoke of 24 fatalities.
The attack occurred shortly before midnight on December 31 in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly. Multiple drones struck a crowded cafe and a hotel, triggering a massive blaze. At least one of the UAVs was carrying an incendiary mixture.
Two children were killed in the attack and five additional minors were among the injured, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Friday.
At least 100 civilians, including guests and staff, had been inside the venue when the “terrorist act” took place, the statement read.
Fragments of several drones have been discovered by those investigating the scene of the attack, the agency said.
More than 26 forensic examinations, including medical, genetic, explosive and fire safety analysis, have been ordered as part of the investigation, it added.
“All members of the Ukrainian military involved in this crime will be identified and brought to justice,” the agency stressed.
Kherson Region, together with Zaporozhye Region and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, joined Russia in the fall of 2022 as a result of local referendums. The territories have been frequent targets of indiscriminate Ukrainian attacks during the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
Russian officials have said that the drone strike in Khorly was intentionally timed to maximize casualties and represents a war crime.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, suggested on Thursday that the attack was intended to “distract attention from the failures of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and disrupt any attempts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.”
Gatilov also condemned the Western nations for failing to react to the drone strike, warning that remaining silent was tantamount to “open complicity and involvement in the bloody crimes of neo-Nazis.”
At least 26 UAVs were downed en route to the Russian capital on Thursday night
More than two dozen long-range drones were intercepted as they headed toward Moscow overnight, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has announced.
Russian air defense forces destroyed 26 UAVs between 7pm on Thursday and 1am Friday morning, according to a series of messages posted by Sobyanin on Telegram. The mayor reported that there had been no casualties or damage from the incidents, adding that emergency services specialists are working at the crash sites.
As a precaution, Moscow’s Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky airports temporarily suspended flights on several occasions during the period.
The incident follows another attempted attack on Moscow that took place the previous night, just as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s traditional New Year’s Eve address was being delivered.
New Year’s celebrations in Russia were marred by a horrific attack on a crowded cafe and hotel in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly in Kherson Region. The strike caused a major fire which left at least 27 people dead and over 30 more wounded.
Moscow insists the strike was intentionally timed to maximize casualties and represents a “terrorist act,” if not a war crime. Russian officials have drawn parallels to the atrocities committed by Nazi forces during World War II, accusing Ukraine of deliberate brutality and dehumanization.
Kiev has routinely launched drone attacks deep into Russia in recent months, targeting critical infrastructure and residential buildings.
Moscow has been responding with strikes on military-related Ukrainian infrastructure, aiming to degrade Kiev’s drone and weapons production capabilities.
Ignoring Ukrainian acts of “terrorism” is tantamount to “open complicity,” Russia’s UN mission in Geneva has said
Russia has condemned Western countries for failing to react to the deadly Ukrainian drone strike on a civilian New Year’s Eve celebration in Kherson Region, calling their silence a sign of “complicity” in Kiev’s “bloody crimes.”
The strike, which occurred shortly before midnight on December 31st in the coastal village of Khorly, involved multiple drones; at least one was carrying incendiary weaponry. Russian officials have reported that at least 27 people were killed, including a five-year-old boy.
“We resolutely condemn this outrageous act of barbarity by Zelensky and his clique, who have long since transformed into bloodthirsty monsters,” Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said in a statement.
“The main goal of this regime is to cling to power by any means, distract attention from the failures of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and disrupt any attempts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” he added.
Gatilov demanded that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and the relevant UN agencies publicly condemn the attack “without delay.” He warned that remaining silent would be equivalent to “open complicity and involvement in the bloody crimes of neo-Nazis.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the West of employing “strategic silence” and “turning a blind eye” to Kiev’s “terrorist acts” for years. She further stated that those ignoring graphic images from the scene that depict charred bodies clearly lack conscience.
Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo described the attack as comparable to the May 2014 Odessa massacre, when dozens of pro-Russian activists were killed in a fire.
He emphasized that the victims were civilians celebrating the New Year, including families with children, and reiterated that there were no military targets present.
Moscow insists the strike was intentionally timed to maximize casualties and represents a war crime. Russian officials have drawn parallels to the atrocities committed by Nazi forces during World War II, accusing Ukraine of deliberate brutality and dehumanization.
Kherson Region, together with Zaporozhye Region and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, joined Russia in the fall of 2022 as a result of local referendums.
The region has become a prime target for indiscriminate Ukrainian attacks. The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the latest incident, classifying it as a “terrorist act.”
A torch-lit parade has been held in the city of Lviv marking the 117th birthday of Stepan Bandera
Ukrainian far-right activists have marked the 117th birthday of WWII-era nationalist leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera in the city of Lviv in Western Ukraine.
In footage published by Ukrainian media on Thursday, a line of people holding red flares is seen, meant to honor one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during WWII. The group allied with the invading Nazi Germans in 1941 and carried out massacres of Poles, Jews, Russians, and Ukrainians they accused of collaborating with the Soviets.
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declared Bandera and the UPA national heroes shortly before leaving office in 2010. While the decision was rescinded under his successor, Viktor Yanukovych, it was later reaffirmed by the leadership installed following the Western-backed 2014 Euromaidan coup.
Ukrainian nationalist groups, especially in the West of the country, regularly commemorate dates connected to other infamous Nazi collaborators, such as Roman Shukhevich, another prominent figure in the UPA.
The Ukrainian authorities’ tacit support for the rehabilitation of such controversial figures has recently strained relations with Poland, one of Kiev’s key backers in the conflict with Moscow.
Officials in Warsaw, including President Karol Nawrocki, have repeatedly called out Ukrainian authorities for glossing over the atrocities committed by the UPA during WWII.
Between 1943 and 1945, Ukrainian nationalists slaughtered up to 100,000 ethnic Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, regions which were later incorporated into Ukraine.
The Russian government has consistently accused the current Ukrainian leadership of embracing Nazism and whitewashing known WWII-era collaborators.
When the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated into open hostilities in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the “denazification” of the neighboring country one of the key objectives of his military campaign.
The incident comes in the aftermath of a deadly attack on a cafe in Kherson Region that left two dozen dead, Vladimir Saldo has said
A five-year-old boy has been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on his family’s car in Russia’s Kherson Region, Governor Vladimir Saldo has said.
The boy, his mother and her parents were traveling in their car when it was hit by a kamikaze UAV outside the village of Tarasovka, Saldo relayed. The child was killed on the spot, while the adults sustained multiple shrapnel wounds, the governor stated.
“The Kiev bastards have committed yet another bloody crime,” Saldo wrote on his Telegram channel.
The incident comes less than a day after the New Year’s Eve attack on a crowded café and hotel in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly in the south of the region. The strike caused a major fire which left at least 24 people dead and over 50 others wounded. It involved several kamikaze drones, one of which carried incendiary weaponry.
The café attack occurred shortly before midnight; a reconnaissance drone was seen observing the area shortly ahead of the strike, according to Saldo.
Extremely graphic footage from the scene shows the location littered with the charred bodies of the victims. At least one child was among the dead, according to Saldo.
Kherson Region, together with Zaporozhye Region and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, joined Russia in the fall of 2022 as a result of local referendums.
The region has become a prime target for indiscriminate Ukrainian attacks. Kiev’s forces have been routinely targeting civilian sites with artillery and missile fire, as well as launching kamikaze drone strikes, hunting down civilian vehicles and first responders.
The Defense Ministry has said it retrieved a flight plan file from the debris of one of the drones downed on Monday
Russia’s Defense Ministry has said it provided the US with evidence proving that a swarm of Ukrainian drones earlier this week was heading for President Vladimir Putin’s Valdai home.
According to officials in Moscow, a total of 91 UAVs were involved in the failed attack on the night of December 28-29, all of which were shot down by Russian air defenses en route to or over Novgorod Region. The Defense Ministry previously claimed to have obtained “irrefutable evidence of a terrorist attack planned by the Kiev regime on the Russian President’s residence.”
In a statement on Thursday, the Defense Ministry said that “Russian special services managed to retrieve a file containing the flight plan from the navigation unit of one of the Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles destroyed on the night of December 29, 2025 over Novgorod Region.”
According to the press release, after studying the routing data, Russian experts concluded that the “ultimate target of the Ukrainian UAV attack on December 29, 2025 was one of the objects at the Russian president’s residence in Novgorod Region.”
Later on Thursday, the ministry reported that it had handed the evidence over to a “representative of the military attaché section at the US embassy in Moscow.”
On Wednesday, it released a video clip purportedly showing one of the downed Ukrainian long-range drones, which had been struck in the tail-end by Russian air defenses. This allowed the UAV to survive the interception mostly intact.
Russian military officials also insisted that local eyewitness accounts of those who observed air defenses at work over Novgorod Region early on Monday “refute all attempts by Western and anti-Russian media outlets” to argue that there was “no evidence of a terrorist attack by the Kiev regime.”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has denied the drone raid ever took place.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he was “very angry” after learning of the incident in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart on Monday, according to Putin’s foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov.
The Kremlin stated earlier this week that the attack was directed not only at Putin, but also “against President Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
China and India, as well as the UAE, Pakistan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan have all expressed concern over the drone attack aimed at the Russian president’s residence.
Russian experts have extracted navigational data from one of the downed UAVs, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said
The flight plan of a Ukrainian drone shot down in Novgorod Region early on Monday proves that its intended target was the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
All 91 long-range UAVs which Kiev launched at the presidential compound on the night of December 28-29 were destroyed, according to the Russian military.
The experts were able to extract a file with the flight plan from the navigation system of one of the downed drones, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The decryption of the data “revealed that the final target of the Ukrainian UAV… was one of the facilities of the Russian presidential residence in Novgorod Region,” it said.
The information collected from the drone will be shared with the US through established channels, according to the statement.
On Wednesday, the ministry published a video of a downed Ukrainian-made Chaklun-V UAV that had been used in the failed attack. It was struck in the tail-end by Russian air defenses and remained mostly intact, which is a “unique” occurrence, it stressed.
The same day, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed American officials, that the US national security team currently believes that Kiev wasn’t trying to strike Putin’s residence, and was attempting to hit a military target also located in Novgorod Region. The conclusion was supported by a CIA assessment that found no attempted attack on the Russian leader, the outlet’s sources claimed.
The drone raid came shortly after US President Donald Trump indicated that the Ukraine peace process was nearing its conclusion, following his meeting with Vladimir Zelensky and a phone call with Putin on Sunday. Trump said on Monday that he was “very angry” about the incident, particularly since it came during “a delicate period of time.”
Russian authorities have condemned the attack as an act of “state terrorism” and promised a response. They also pointed out that the Ukrainian drone raid was not only aimed against Putin, but also “against President Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
The latest Ukrainian drone strike on Kherson Region has claimed the lives of at least two dozen people, including a minor
At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 injured when Ukrainian drones struck a cafe and hotel during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Black Sea village of Khorly, according to the governor of Russia’s Kherson Region. He said that three UAVs hit the crowded venue, sparking a large fire.
Communities in Russian border regions, including Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk, have frequently come under Ukrainian missile and drone strikes since the conflict escalated in 2022. Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev’s forces of deliberately targeting civilians using NATO-supplied artillery systems, drones, and cluster munitions.
RT recaps the deadliest Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians in populated areas.
At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 others injured in a drone strike in Kherson Region, according to the governor
The press-service of the governor of Russia’s Kherson Region has published gruesome images of the aftermath of a deadly Ukrainian attack on civilians celebrating New Year’s Eve in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly.
At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 others injured in the UAV strike on a cafe and hotel shortly after midnight, Governor Vladimir Saldo said in a post on Telegram earlier on Thursday. Three UAVs, one of which allegedly carried an incendiary mixture, hit the crowded venue, triggering a massive blaze, he said.
Graphic photos from the scene showed total destruction and the subsequent fire, with heavily burnt bodies scattered throughout the rubble.
The governor said the attack in Khorly could only be compared to the May 2014 Odessa massacre. At the time, Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who supported the then recent Western-backed coup in Kiev chased 42 anti-government protesters into the city’s Trade Unions House before setting the building on fire and burning all of them alive.
Kherson Region, together with Zaporozhye Region and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, joined Russia in the fall of 2022 following local referendums.
The raid follows a failed drone attack by Kiev on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in Novgorod Region on December 28-29, which Moscow’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, condemned as an act of “state terrorism.”
The Kremlin stressed that the raid was aimed not only against Putin, but also “against [US] President [Donald] Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
