The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, made personnel changes in the management of national security and defense, removing Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Oleksandr Litvinenko, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, from their posts.
The relevant decrees about these changes were published on the president's website. The reasons for these personnel decisions were not disclosed.
However, the president appointed Oleksandr Lytvynenko to the position of secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. Oleg Ivashchenko, who previously held the position of first deputy head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, immediately took over the position of head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.
Oleksiy Danilov, one of the most loyal and open members of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi's team, has been dismissed from the post of 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 Luhansk region, where he held the positions of mayor of Luhansk and head of the regional state administration. He was also a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in 2006-2007.
Under the leadership of Oleksiy Danilov, the National Security and Defense Council became an active tool for implementing the president's strategic tasks. For example, in 2021, with his participation, thousands of sanctions were introduced against criminal authorities, smugglers, pro-Russian politicians and the mass media controlled by them. However, some lawyers expressed doubts about the legality of such actions of the National Security Council.
Before a full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, Oleksiy Danilov publicly expressed hope, calling such a scenario "unlikely."
"Some movements of troops are being observed, but at the moment it is not a critical situation. 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 an interview in January 2022.
After the start of the great war, he explained to the Air Force of Ukraine 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 Belarus was unexpected. "It is completely unfair to accuse us of not preparing. We could not go out and tell the 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 a comment on the Il-76 plane crash in the Belgorod region this year. He directly stated that there were no Ukrainian prisoners on board, despite reports from the Russian authorities to the contrary, and Ukrainian intelligence, which emphasized that the investigation was ongoing.
Russian propaganda also used Danilov's deepfake on March 22 on the state-run NTV channel. In a fake video, he seems to have confessed to Ukraine's involvement in the terrorist attack in the Russian Crocus concert hall.
After his resignation, 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 in wartime! Thank you to the President of Ukraine for the trust and the opportunity to be a part of Great History at the most important moment of our existence!"
Danilov also thanked his team at the NSDC for the "tremendous work of creating unique information and analytical systems."
Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the new secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, has a less public biography than his predecessor, Danilov.
He is a native of Kyiv and holds a doctorate in political science. He started his career in the Security Service of Ukraine, and from 1998 to 2007 he worked at the National Institute for Strategic Studies. After that, he worked for two years at the National Security and Defense Council, and then returned to a leadership position at the Institute for Strategic Studies.
During the presidency of Petro Poroshenko, Lytvynenko held the post of deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. After Zelensky came to power, he again returned to the Institute of Strategic Studies as a director.
In July 2021, Lytvynenko was appointed head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.
As head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, he rarely communicated with the media, preferring to publish analytical articles on various topics. For example, in February 2023, in an article for Interfax-Ukraine, Lytvynenko expressed confidence that the Russian Federation is ready to wage war with Ukraine for a very long time.
However, he also emphasized that the main goal of the Kremlin is to destabilize the internal situation in Ukraine.
In addition, Lytvynenko actually predicted Russia's attack on Ukraine back in 2009. Together with Volodymyr Horbulin, they published the article "The great neighbor has decided." What should Ukraine do next?" in the "Mirror of the Week" in September 2009, which analyzed the situation in Russia and threats to Ukraine.
