The decision to dismiss the Secretary of the National Security Council from his post came as a surprise, but he has already reacted to the president’s decree.
Danilov was released: how the politician was remembered / photo UNIAN
On March 26, a decree on the dismissal of Oleksiy Danilov from the post of secretary of the National Security and Defense Council appeared on the website of the President’s Office. The personnel decision came as a surprise to Ukrainians.
Danilov himself, commenting on the president’s decision, urged “not to be afraid, never, of anyone, to go forward and believe in Ukraine, believe in the people of Ukraine.” UNIAN collected the most important things from the political career of Danilov, the former secretary of the National Security Council.
Oleksiy Danilov: the path to politics
Oleksiy Danilov graduated from the Luhansk State Pedagogical University named following T. Shevchenko is a historian by profession, East Ukrainian National University named following V. Dalya, master of management and Luhansk Institute of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, lawyer by profession.
Danilov’s political career developed quite quickly. From 1994 to 1997, he served as the mayor of Luhansk. During the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, he headed the Luhansk Regional State Administration. Subsequently, Danilov was the deputy chairman of the Party of Free Democrats and a member of the “Batkivshchyna” political party, from which he was elected a people’s deputy to the Verkhovna Rada of the 5th convocation.
Danilov was the 13th secretary of the National Security Council during the independence of Ukraine. He held this position since October 2019.
Danilov was a member of the circle of people close to the president, and spoke a lot with the Western press during the full-scale invasion.
Danilov became the 13th secretary of the National Security Council / UNIAN
Danilov’s resonant statements are the most interesting
Oleksiy Danilov was one of the most authoritative speakers among the Ukrainian authorities during the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. He appeared in the information space not often, but with resonant and loud statements.
- About the invasion of Russia:
On March 1, 2022, Danilov made almost the first public statement regarding the start of a major war. He admitted that Ukraine was expecting this, but did not expect that the invasion would be so large-scale.
“It is necessary to clearly realize: our army is strong, we understand what we are doing… There are difficulties. Because no one imagined that such an armada would advance on our country. But I want to say: our military is conscious, they understand that they have to to do,” Danilov said then.
Danilov made several harsh statements regarding the Russian dictator. In the spring of 2022, he said that Putin dreams of eliminating the military-political leadership of the state and Ukraine as a whole.
“The war continues. It will not be easy… Putin does not withdraw from the task of destroying us as a state. This is the destruction of the highest political leadership of our country,” he said.
Danilov was one of the first to actually announce Ukrainian strikes on the Crimean bridge, sacred to Putin.
“The world must finally understand that Putin is no different from Hitler. Hitler was obsessed with the extermination of the Jews, and Putin wants to exterminate the Ukrainians,” Danilov emphasized following several months of war.
He also called Putin a scumbag, commenting on the murders of Ukrainian children. “As the German people at one time bore the atonement for Hitler, the Russians will bear responsibility for this scum,” Danilov said.
- About Ukraine’s mistakes:
“The main mistake, since 1991, is that our neighbor is our “friend, brother”, supposedly, and some kind of our partner… All the presidents and prime ministers who were in our power, they because of the so-called ” “the famous gas pipe” was put on the hook of the Russian Federation. And this was one of the fundamental things. There was a great Russification of our business, our politics, our information space, other life processes,” Danilov stated at the beginning of the war.
Oleksiy Danilov / facebook.com_danilov.oleksiy
- About Zelenskyi:
Danilov attended all key meetings with the participation of the president. It was he who told how Zelensky reacted to the full-scale invasion.
“Volodymyr Oleksandrovich was in a white shirt, and I remember it like that, you know… He says: “So what? We will fight!” Danilov said, recalling the meeting on the morning of February 24.
Danilov also admitted that in the first two months of the war, they tried to kill Zelenskyi five times. The secretary of the National Security Council told how the president reacted. “He says: ‘Myacheslavovich, as much as possible, I’m already fed up with them,'” Danilov recalled.
Danilov never made optimistic forecasts regarding agreements with the aggressor and the terms of the end of the war. “With Russia, we can only sign its capitulation. The sooner they do it, the more it will benefit their country,” Danilov said in 2022.
“Our position is simple: detach from us, go to your land, of which you still have a lot. You will not be here, this is our land,” he emphasized a few months later.
- About help from partners:
“No one owes us anything. This is the help we receive from all countries, we should be thankful that it is available today. I can’t imagine what we would do (from February 24 – UNIAN) if we had at that time, we did not have what was provided to us – javelins, stingers, etc.,” said Danilov.
Afterwards, he told how Western weapons created problems for the occupiers. “This weapon works flawlessly: it knows exactly where to hit, and these shots hit exactly where they need to hit,” he said.
However, already a year later, Danilov reproached the Western countries for their lack of courage and determination in opposing Russia.
- About freezing the war:
Danilov’s position on freezing the war was clear and radical, as in the case of peace agreements.
“We cannot freeze anything. We are not a cold store. We must liberate our territories regardless of the weather, regardless of the season. We cannot assume any stoppage, because our people are there, we see how they suffer, how they are from they meet our boys, our liberators, with tears in their eyes,” he said.
- About the war on the territory of the Russian Federation:
Danilov stated that the Ukrainian army can cross the border with the Russian Federation if it is necessary for the interests of the state. “We will not ask anyone. And all this chatter regarding not needing to annoy someone there is nonsense,” he declared.
- About the failures of the Armed Forces:
During the counteroffensive in 2023, Danilov regularly publicly stated that “everything is going according to plan.” However, later he had to admit that the expectations did not come true.
“There were hopes, but they did not come true. The fact that we have been defending our country for two years is already a great victory… The situation at the front is very difficult, old textbooks on war, including NATO ones, must be sent back to the archives. Such there was no war like the one in our country in the 20th or 21st century,” he said.
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Danilov believes that the end of the war in Ukraine should include the collapse of Russia. He is sure that Russia cannot defeat Ukraine by military means. At the same time, Danilov recently admitted that Ukraine has problems with the supply of weapons.
“There is indeed a situation when there are not enough shells, there are not enough means of defeating the enemy,” he said at the beginning of February this year.
