Why Zelenskyy is Surrounded with High-Level Advisors and What the Advisory Board Case Has to Do with It

Author

Kira Ivanova

Yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held the first meeting of the International Advisory Group tasked with working on Ukraine’s economic recovery projects.

At the inaugural session, advisors and government officials focused on energy resilience and preparations for the next winter, implementation of major investment projects in Ukraine, and investment in the defense industry.

Who Zelenskyy Consults

In official photographs released by the Presidential Office, Zelenskyy is seated alongside Chrystia Freeland, his advisor on economic development and former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Canada.

Also present were:

Denys Shmyhal, currently serving as First Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for energy;
Taras Kachka, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and long-time Trade Representative of Ukraine;
Oleksandr Kamyshin, Strategic Advisor, who is reportedly being considered to head an overseas defense industry representation office;
Oksana Markarova, Advisor on reconstruction and investment;
Serhiy Koretskyi, CEO of Naftogaz.

On the other side of the screen were leaders of major international financial institutions, including the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was reportedly preparing to take on a new advisory role. Also involved was Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference and a well-known figure in European security circles.

No less notable is the list of defense and investment companies engaged in consultations by the Presidential Office:

Vestas Wind Systems,
Siemens Energy,
General Atlantic,
BlackRock,
Fortescue,
Citigroup,
ArcelorMittal,
State Street Corporation,
Lazard,
Relativity Space,
McKinsey & Company, and
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB).

Why the Government Engages International Advisors: The State Recovery Advisory Board Case

We list the members of the advisory group deliberately. Their positions often determine the speed at which large investment projects receive approvals and financing.

Eighteen months ago, then-Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal initiated a pilot analogue of the current advisory group — the Advisory Board under the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine.

What consultants can achieve, provided there is political will and active engagement, was explained by Mykyta Kovalevskyi, a lawyer who administered the Advisory Board project first as aide to the Agency’s head and later on a pro bono basis, as he recently wrote in his blog for Speka.

According to him, in just one year the international advisors accomplished a great deal.

Former Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs Tiit Riisalo developed a guarantees mechanism for a €225 million Danube bridge project, involving the European Commission, export credit agencies, and blended finance instruments. This is critical for a project that forms part of the Border Infrastructure Development Strategy with the EU and Moldova through 2030 — especially given that the Agency still lacks a mandate for direct financing due to the incomplete pillar assessment.
Jiří Kopecký, former IT Director of the South African National Roads Agency and advisor to Austria’s Ministry of Finance, initiated a bridge monitoring pilot with Italy’s Nplus srl, prepared cost calculations for Weight-in-Motion (WiM) systems and tariff models based on Czech contracts, and launched negotiations on the Ukrainian Toll Domain and supplier certification. This concerns not only over UAH 110 million in projected 2025 budget revenues. Every preserved kilometer of road is a route for rapid, life-saving transport.
The WASH sector team of UNICEF, led by Nicholas Osbert, developed project prioritization criteria within the DREAM ecosystem based on an adaptation of the Five Case Model to Ukrainian realities.

"At the same time, recommendations regarding cooperation with regional restoration services and the Ministry of Economy were only partially implemented, which affected staffing capacity and financing of the centralized procurement organization. Some developments, particularly in the energy sector, risk remaining on paper," Kovalevskyi diplomatically summarized — effectively translating three words: "lost in bureaucracy."

This year, Kovalevskyi left the SARDI and joined the ranks of the National Guard of Ukraine.

"The Defense Forces create the conditions for peace negotiations, within which Ukraine’s EU membership is considered a long-term security guarantee," he explained.