NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk has streamlined the roles for her president of football operations and general manager as the Titans prepare to search for a new coach.
Strunk said in a message to Titans fans Friday afternoon that Chad Brinker, president of football operations, and first-year general manager Mike Borgonzi approached her a few weeks ago to talk about their evaluation of this season.
“We're returning to a front office that feels more straightforward to them and to me,” Strunk said. “Going forward, Mike will serve as general manager in the most traditional sense — pick and support the players, oversee the coaching staff — while Chad will continue to lead everything else about the football team.”
Strunk said that means Borgonzi, hired in January 2025, will lead the search for a new coach and manage the 53-man roster moving forward. That search kicks into high gear after Sunday's season finale at Jacksonville for the Titans (3-13).
Brinker will oversee salary cap management, analytics, research and development and the team’s other football departments.
“Both will report to me, and their collective goal is to return the football team to the championship-caliber you deserve,” Strunk said.
Brinker made clear before the Titans opened training camp in July that this would be a rebuilding season, and they are wrapping up a fourth straight losing season since winning back-to-back AFC South titles.
Strunk fired Brian Callahan six games into his second season. Borgonzi is the Titans third different general manager with Strunk firing Jon Robinson late in his seventh season in December 2022 and Ran Carthon in January 2025.
One bright spot has been Cam Ward with the No. 1 overall pick poised to start his 17th game Sunday. That will mark just the seventh season this franchise has had a quarterback start every game in its 29 seasons in Tennessee, which is third worst in the NFL in that span.
Strunk thanked fans for their support. The Titans move into their new enclosed stadium for the 2027 season.
“We remain more dedicated than ever to you, this team, Nashville, and the entire state as we build a strong foundation for the future,” she said.
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FILE - Tennessee Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi before the start of a football game in Nashville, Tenn, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - Tennessee Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker, left, walks with team owner Amy Adams Strunk, before the start of a game in Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday appointed the head of Ukraine's military intelligence as his new chief of staff, a move that comes as the U.S. leads a diplomatic push to end Russia's nearly 4-year-old invasion.
Announcing the appointment of Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs to focus on security issues, developing its defense and security forces, and peace talks — areas that are overseen by the office of the president.
Zelenskyy had dismissed his previous chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, after anti-corruption officials began investigating alleged graft in the energy sector.
The president framed Budanov's appointment as part of a broader effort to sharpen the focus on security, defense development and diplomacy.
“Kyrylo has specialized experience in these areas and sufficient strength to achieve results,” Zelenskyy said.
Budanov, 39, said on Telegram his new position is “both an honor and a responsibility — at a historic time for Ukraine — to focus on the critically important issues of the state’s strategic security.”
In his evening address, Zelenskyy announced further changes to his team, saying he had proposed Mykhailo Fedorov, the current minister for digital transformation, as the new minister of defense.
Fedorov, 34, is credited with spearheading the introduction of drone technology in Ukraine’s army and introducing several successful e-government platforms in his current role.
He replaces Denys Shmyhal who took up the post last July in a major government shake-up. Zelenskyy thanked Shmyhal and said he would be taking up another role in government. He also credited the ministry for reaching a target production of more than 1,000 interceptor drones per day in December.
Earlier, Zelenskyy appointed Foreign Intelligence Service head Oleh Ivashchenko to replace Budanov as intelligence chief.
Budanov is one of the country’s most recognizable and popular wartime figures. He has led Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known by its acronym GUR, since 2020.
A career military intelligence officer, he rose through the defense establishment after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. He also took part in special operations and intelligence missions linked to the fighting with Moscow-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine before the full-scale invasion of February 2022. He reportedly was wounded during one such operation.
Since the full-scale invasion, Budanov has become a prominent face of Kyiv’s intelligence effort, regularly appearing in interviews and briefings that mix strategic signaling with psychological pressure on Moscow. He has frequently warned of Russia’s long-term intentions toward Ukraine and the region, while portraying the war as an existential struggle for the country's statehood.
Under Budanov, the GUR expanded its operational footprint, coordinating intelligence, sabotage and special operations aimed at degrading Russian military capabilities far beyond the front lines. Ukrainian officials have credited military intelligence with operations targeting Russian command structures, logistics hubs, energy infrastructure and naval assets, including strikes deep inside Russian territory and occupied areas.
His appointment to lead the office of the president marks an unusual shift, placing an intelligence chief at the center of Ukraine’s political and diplomatic coordination.
Ihor Reiterovych, a Kyiv-based independent political expert, noted that Budanov had participated in the talks with the U.S. and “will fit much more naturally into the overall context" of the negotiations.
“Unlike Yermak, he has both experience in this field and has worked in a relevant position,” Reiterovych said, adding that the GUR also has had certain contacts with Russia on issues such as prisoner exchanges.
Russian authorities said Friday the death toll from what they called a Ukrainian drone strike on a cafe and hotel in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine’s Kherson region rose to 28. Kyiv strongly denied attacking civilian targets.
Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman of Russia's main criminal investigation agency, the Investigative Committee, said those killed in the village of Khorly, where at least 100 civilians were celebrating New Year's Eve, included two minors, while 31 people were hospitalized.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff, Dmytro Lykhovii, denied attacking civilians. He told Ukraine's public broadcaster Suspilne on Thursday that Ukrainian forces “adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law” and "carry out strikes exclusively against Russian military targets, facilities of the Russian fuel and energy sector, and other lawful targets.”
He noted that Russia has repeatedly used disinformation and false statements to disrupt the ongoing peace negotiations.
The Associated Press could not independently verify claims made about the attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday that he, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had a “productive call” with the national security advisers of Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine “to discuss advancing the next steps in the European peace process.”
The U.S. efforts has faced a new obstacle earlier this week, when Moscow said it would toughen its negotiating stand after what it said was a long-range drone attack against a residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in northwestern Russia early Monday.
Kyiv has denied attacking Putin’s residence, saying the Russian claim was a ruse to derail the negotiations.
In his New Year’s address, Zelenskyy said a peace deal was “90% ready” but warned that the remaining 10% — believed to include key sticking points such as territory — would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live.”
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia struck a residential area of Kharkiv with two missiles Friday, Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram page, adding that Moscow's forces "continue the killings, despite all the efforts of the world, and above all the United States, in the diplomatic process.”
At least 19 people in the eastern city were injured, including a 6-month-old, said regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied launching any strikes with missiles or other airborne weapons on Kharkiv on Friday and suggested, without offering evidence, that the damage could have been caused by the detonation of ammunition at a weapons depot.
Earlier Friday, Russia conducted what local authorities called “one of the most massive” drone attacks at Zaporizhzhia. At least nine drones struck the city, damaging dozens of residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure but causing no casualties, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional administration.
Overall, Russia fired 116 long-range drones at Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s air force, with 86 intercepted and 27 striking their targets.
The Russian ministry said its air defenses intercepted 64 Ukrainian drones overnight in multiple Russian regions.
The Russian city of Belgorod was hit by a Ukrainian missile, according to regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. Two women were hospitalized after the strike, which shattered windows and damaged an unspecified commercial facility and a number of cars in the region that borders Ukraine, he said.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026.(AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
In this photo, provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits perform drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits perform drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
FILE - Ukraine's military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov speaks during press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits perform drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits perform drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
