“Wagnergate”: Intelligence Chief Does Not Report to Presidential Office Head, Yermak Moved Special Operation on Zelensky’s Behalf

Former intelligence chief names those to whom the agency reported.

After journalist Yanina Sokolova published an intelligence report on the “Wagnerites,” the intelligence chief stated that he does not report to the head of the Office of the President, while the former intelligence chief named the people to whom he reported. We are covering the latest news on this topic. 

What Budanov said

Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, stated that Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak could not influence the conduct of the special operation to detain members of the Wagner PMC, which failed in the summer of 2020. 

Kyrylo Budanov
head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense

We are not investigative bodies to examine anyone’s role, but if you are asking whether the head of the Office could influence the course of the special operation, I can say with full responsibility that, according to the law on intelligence, the head of the Office, whoever he may be, cannot interfere in the conduct of any special measure. Neither he nor I have the authority to listen to this official during such operations. 

Regarding the documents published by Sokolova, approved by his predecessor Vasily Burba, Budanov said that anyone who wished could have passed the documents to the parliamentary commission, and he does not know what the press is reporting. 

According to him, only journalist Christo Grozev of Bellingcat had approached his agency about the operation involving the “Wagnerites” two or three days ago. 

Budanov said: “As a career intelligence officer, I consider it inappropriate for questions about special operations to be brought into the public sphere. This is unacceptable in any civilized country in the world. It does not exist anywhere.” 

During the talk show, People’s Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak of “Holos” noted that the main question for society now is how the postponement of the special operation affected its outcome and whether information was “leaked” from Ukraine to Belarus or Russia, and why “this story did not become a success story but a story of failure.” 

Faction leader of “Servant of the People” David Arakhamia stated that after journalist Sokolova published the intelligence documents, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense may lose its prospect of access to NATO countries’ intelligence data. 

Zelensky and Yermak ignored Shuster’s broadcast

None of the government representatives, including President Volodymyr Zelensky and Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak, responded to the invitation to the studio for the “Freedom of Speech with Savik Shuster” broadcast to discuss the “Wagnerites” issue. 

Savik Shuster
journalist

The people invited to the program who decided not to attend were the president, the head of the Presidential Office, the head of the SBU, the head of the State Bureau of Investigation, David Arakhamia, head of the “Servant of the People” faction, and member of the national security committee Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories. Why these people did not come is something I last saw when the authorities did not come, which was in times that now seem distant, like under Yanukovych. But I think they did not come because nothing good can be said on this topic. Today we will talk about the operation to lure and capture Russian mercenaries who committed war crimes in eastern Ukraine.

Instead, journalist Yanina Sokolova, Yuriy Butusov, Dmytro Gordon, People’s Deputy Roman Kostenko and former NSDC secretary Oleksandr Turchynov were present in the studio. 

Yermak moved the special operation on Zelensky’s behalf

Former head of the Main Intelligence Directorate Vasily Burba stated that Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak, on behalf of President Zelensky, instructed that the special operation against the “Wagnerites” be postponed. 

Vasily Burba
former head of the GUR

What happened on the 23rd… There were two of us, and this is the person who was responsible for our joint work from the Security Service (referring to First Deputy SBU Head Ruslan Baranetsky — ed.). The first deputy and I arrived at the Office to report on changes in the situation during the active measure. We did not get to the president. We went up to the fourth floor and were told that the head of the Office (Andriy Yermak — ed.) would speak with us. We held a conversation, there were three of us: me, first deputy Ruslan Baranetsky, and the head of the Office. A report was made on the change in the situation regarding the next stage, that is, the scheduled report we had been making on the joint operation for some time.

Burba noted that he received an instruction to postpone the final stage. He received a response that it was the president’s instruction, since the person who had been delegated and had been present before reported that it was the president’s order. 

The former GUR head clarified that they could not have ignored Yermak, since he attended all the reports and was also delegated by the president. Yermak also conveyed the postponement on behalf of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and the intelligence service could not have done everything without Zelensky’s own approval. 

Burba believes that it was already impossible to postpone the special operation, and that this is one of the reasons for its failure. 

Whom Burba reported to

Vasily Burba named a small circle of people to whom intelligence officers report on their affairs. 

Vasily Burba
former head of the GUR

The Supreme Commander-in-Chief determines who attends the reports of the head of military intelligence during 2019–2020. These individuals are determined by the president. As head, I report to the people who are in the office. In our case, at the president’s order, in the office, besides me and the president, were the head of the Office, the deputy head of the Office, and the heads of the committee. The reports took place with this composition. That is, these individuals were authorized by the president. 

He explained that because the president is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, representatives of all intelligence services report to him on an ongoing basis (once a week or once every three days if the information is not urgent), namely the Foreign Intelligence Service, the GUR, and border intelligence. 

Burba noted that this group of people receives reports on all affairs, not only those concerning the “Wagnerites.” 

Why Zelensky did not come to the broadcast

Adviser to the Presidential Office head Mykhailo Podolyak stated that government representatives did not come to the program to discuss the failure of the special operation against the “Wagnerites” because it is oligarchic television and the invitation there is fake and hype. 

The Presidential Office stated that this broadcast is manipulation, provocation, and an oligarchic channel altogether. It is worth noting that previously the authorities had skipped almost none of this program’s episodes. 

Mykhailo Podolyak
adviser to the head of the Presidential Office

To be frank, even today’s invitation of government representatives to the broadcast is fake and hype. It is hard to believe there is a desire for real freedom of speech. If there were, the broadcast would not be moderated to fit another emotional drama in oligarchic interests. Summoning an oligarch to the TV carpet is, of course, very loud. But it is funny. The president, the head of the Presidential Office, and any other official will not run around TV studios on the orders of an oligarch. Those times are over. Real freedom of speech is very different from oligarchic wishes. And objective coverage of a topic is certainly different from corporate press releases. Although, do they understand at that platform what such values mean?