New Zelensky Team: Which Top Officials Joined the Updated Inner Circle

The composition of the delegation that traveled with Volodymyr Zelensky to the U.S. for the UN General Assembly is highly telling, since such key trips include the most needed, trusted, and loyal people. This visit clearly demonstrates how the president’s circle of like-minded people transformed after Andriy Yermak.

Instead of a single center of influence beside the head of state, an updated group of pragmatic leaders has formed: Davyid Arakhamiya conducts negotiations with Trump’s circle, Rustem Umerov handles backroom agreements, Denys Shmyhal secures grants for energy, and Serhiy Kyslytsia and Ihor Zhovkva provide the diplomatic framework.

Journalist Korotko pro explored how effective this new system is and who now shares key influence at Bankova.

Budanov gave up hands-on control

The current head of the Office of the President, Kyrylo Budanov, has lost some of Yermak’s informal powers. He is more focused on security, intelligence, and strict control over processes than on total political mediation.

After his appointment as head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov abandoned the practice of total hands-on control over the Cabinet. He does not micromanage the executive branch, does not dictate economic decisions to ministries, and does not allocate financial flows the way Yermak did. Appointments to civilian technocratic positions and the economic track now go directly through the Cabinet and relevant committees of the Verkhovna Rada, rather than being issued as informal directives from Bankova.

Budanov conducts international activity, but not like Yermak—strictly within his competencies. He has fully centralized the official and informal negotiation tracks, security matters, and exchanges. At the same time, classic international diplomacy has been returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the relevant deputy prime ministers.

Arakhamiya expanded his role and influence on the president

With Yermak’s departure, Davyid Arakhamiya, head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, has only strengthened his position. Whereas before he had to coordinate all actions with Andriy Yermak, that obstacle is now gone. His influence has grown qualitatively, making him indispensable to Volodymyr Zelensky on many issues.

Officially remaining head of the Servant of the People faction, Arakhamiya has effectively expanded his role. From a shaky single-party majority he built a hybrid model of situational parliamentary coalitions with other deputy groups and the opposition, which allows Bankova to reliably secure the needed 226 votes for key bills and personnel purges.

His presence in the delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York is explained by personal contacts on Capitol Hill. Arakhamiya is among the few Ukrainian top politicians with direct informal channels to the Republican Party of Donald Trump. He attended Donald Trump’s inauguration, has access to his inner circle, and now serves as Bankova’s main communicator with Washington in attempts to find compromise formulas to end the war.

Umerov and backroom negotiations in Ukraine’s international track

Another member of the Ukrainian delegation is head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Rustem Umerov. At first glance, his presence on a purely political trip to the UN General Assembly seems incongruous, but in reality he remains one of Volodymyr Zelensky’s main negotiators on the international stage.

Umerov has what most Office of the President officials lack: trust from the U.S. administration, as well as deep ties in the Islamic world, which are critically important for mediation.

Umerov works as a classic negotiator. He does not create domestic political conflicts and does not fight for influence over the Cabinet. Although his name appeared in the context of some anti-corruption investigations (the Mindich case), Umerov has retained the president’s full trust.

In Zelensky’s American delegation, Rustem Umerov is responsible for backroom agreements with the Americans and other countries. He participates in closed negotiations with Kushner and Witkoff, ironing out specific points of potential political agreements.

Technocrats and effective crisis managers

The remaining members of the Ukrainian delegation to the UN General Assembly—Denys Shmyhal, Serhiy Kyslytsia, and Ihor Zhovkva—act less as classic centers of political influence and more as pure technocrats and effective managers. They do not shape domestic politics or engage in backroom power struggles, but perform strictly defined and critically important practical tasks for the Office of the President.

Shmyhal now serves as the chief technocrat preparing the country for winter. He came to the UN General Assembly to work within the Energy Ramstein (the G7+ coordination group). His task is to hold direct negotiations with international financial institutions on grants to restore damaged energy facilities and accelerate funding for distributed gas generation. He presents concrete technical estimates of capacity shortfalls to Western partners.

Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN, Serhiy Kyslytsia, is a highly effective career diplomat who provides the legal and organizational framework for the president’s key events. Deputy Head of the Office of the President Ihor Zhovkva traditionally remains the main working pen and architect of Bankova’s diplomatic protocol. His task is the technical planning of President Zelensky’s visit to the UN General Assembly.

President Zelensky forms his team on a pragmatic principle

One can assume that Volodymyr Zelensky’s new team is now formed and operates on principles different from the Yermak era. Currently, it’s exclusively a pragmatic approach. Zelensky’s current travel entourage—Arakhamiya, Umerov, Shmyhal, Kyslytsia, and Zhovkva—are not “Quarter” friends or personal favorites, but functional managers in their positions.

The military bloc centers on Drapaty, security on Budanov, the Cabinet on Koretskyi, the Rada on Arakhamiya, and energy and winter preparedness on Shmyhal.

Expert opinions

Taras Zahorodniy, political scientist:

- If the current head of the Office of the President, Kyrylo Budanov, does not take on all the roles Yermak played, it is quite natural that Zelensky distributed the main directions among the managers who can and do handle them. The main thing is that the overall system maintains its function and does not fail. The main center of influence has now finally become President Zelensky. Strategic directions, such as a meeting with Trump, Zelensky takes on himself, while other nuances and negotiations remain with Umerov and Arakhamiya.

Volodymyr Fesenko, political scientist:

- It is not worth drawing conclusions based solely on the composition of the delegation that traveled with President Zelensky. That delegation was tailored exclusively for this event, more precisely, for official and backroom negotiations on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

As for Zelensky’s current team, it has not changed radically. The president simply split Andriy Yermak’s functions into several directions as a system of internal checks and balances against the monopoly of a single person. Now no one in his circle has the large weight Yermak once had in relations with the president during decision preparation and adoption. President Zelensky evaluates officials from the perspective of an effective manager, and if they deliver results, he elevates them within his circle.