There is ongoing routine dialogue between the current and former heads of the Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence - Oleh Ivashchenko and Kyrylo Budanov - and reports of a "struggle for influence" between them are media speculation, sources in military intelligence told Interfax-Ukraine. The source said Ivashchenko and Budanov are generals who have effectively spent their entire careers serving in the directorate, and that both "value the traditions and values that have taken shape in the intelligence service." But the two continue to engage in dialogue, communicate at briefings and meetings, everything is routine, specific, in a military manner. Media reports had earlier claimed that the current head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence, Oleh Ivashchenko, was trying to weaken the influence of his predecessor, Kyrylo Budanov, over the directorate and had already removed many of Budanov’s people from their posts. According to Ukrainska Pravda, Ivashchenko is "doing everything he can to push out" Budanov’s influence over the agency.