President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made personnel changes in the leadership of national security and defense, removing Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, from their positions.
The relevant decrees on these changes were published on the president's website. The reasons for these personnel decisions were not disclosed.
However, the president appointed Oleksandr Litvinenko to the position of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. Immediately, the position of Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service was taken by Oleg Ivashchenko, who previously held the position of First Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
Oleksiy Danilov, one of the most loyal and outspoken members of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's team, has been dismissed from his post as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. During his career in this position, which he held since October 2019, Danilov was noted for his active commentary on various aspects, from political controversies to events on the military front.
Before joining the NSDC, Oleksiy Danilov was known mainly in the Luhansk region, where he held the positions of mayor of Luhansk and head of the regional state administration. He was also a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in 2006-2007.
Under the leadership of Alexei Danilov, the National Security and Defense Council has become an active tool for implementing the president's strategic objectives. For example, in 2021, with his participation, thousands of sanctions were imposed against criminal authorities, smugglers, pro-Russian politicians and media outlets controlled by them. However, some lawyers have expressed doubts about the legality of such actions by the NSDC.
Before Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, Alexey Danilov publicly expressed hope, calling such a scenario "unlikely.".
“Some troop movements are being observed, but it is not a critical situation at the moment. For the Russians to launch a full-scale ground operation, they would need over a million troops, and that would take time. The movement of such a large number of people and equipment cannot go unnoticed,” he noted in a January 2022 interview.
After the start of the great war, he explained to the Ukrainian Air Force that the authorities were indeed preparing for an invasion, but the exact date was unknown.
“We understood what would happen on our territory. Moreover, the date of the attack was not February 24, but the 22nd. They planned to attack our country on February 22 in the format that we are now observing,” explained the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
He also claimed that the movement of Russian troops from the Belarusian side was unexpected. “It is absolutely unfair to accuse us of not being prepared. We could not go out and tell citizens: ‘Friends, the war begins on February 22.’ This would be unacceptable from the point of view of state leadership. But we were preparing,” Danilov claimed.
One of Danilov's last important statements was his comment on the crash of an Il-76 plane in the Belgorod region this year. He directly stated that there were no Ukrainian prisoners on board, despite reports to the contrary from the Russian authorities and Ukrainian intelligence, which emphasized that the investigation was ongoing.
Russian propaganda also used a deepfake of Danilov on the state-run NTV channel on March 22. In the fake video, he appeared to admit to Ukraine’s involvement in the terrorist attack at the Russian Crocus Concert Hall.
After being dismissed from his position, Oleksiy Danilov published a post on his Facebook page in which he thanked his team and the president.
“I thank fate for the opportunity to serve my country and my people in peacetime and wartime! I thank the President of Ukraine for the trust and the opportunity to be part of Great History at the most important moment of our existence!”
Danilov also thanked his team at the National Security and Defense Council for "the enormous work that went into creating unique information and analytical systems.".
Oleksandr Litvinenko, the new Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, has a less public biography than his predecessor, Danilov.
A native of Kyiv, he holds a PhD in political science. He began his career in the Security Service of Ukraine and worked at the National Institute for Strategic Studies from 1998 to 2007. He then worked for two years at the National Security and Defense Council before returning to a senior position at the Institute for Strategic Studies.
During the presidency of Petro Poroshenko, Lytvynenko served as Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. After Zelensky came to power, he returned to the Institute for Strategic Studies as its head.
In July 2021, Litvinenko was appointed head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.
As head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, he rarely contacted the media, preferring to publish analytical articles on various topics. For example, in February 2023, in an article for Interfax-Ukraine, Litvinenko expressed confidence that the Russian Federation was ready to wage war with Ukraine for a very long time.
However, he also emphasized that the Kremlin's main goal is to destabilize the internal situation in Ukraine.
In addition, Litvinenko actually predicted Russia's attack on Ukraine back in 2009. Together with Volodymyr Horbulin, they published the article "The Big Neighbor Has Decided. What Should Ukraine Do Next?" in Dzerkal Tyzhnia in September 2009, in which they analyzed the situation in Russia and the threats to Ukraine.
