Photo author, Office of the President
March 29, 2024
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi has made significant changes in his team in the last few days. People who came to power with the young president back in 2019 lost their positions.
On March 26, they published a decree on the dismissal of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov. He was replaced by the ex-head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Oleksandr Lytvynenko. Experts note that the latter is a very professional and experienced analyst, which, however, does not gravitate towards publicity.
Danilov, on the other hand, not only became the record holder in the history of Ukraine for the time spent as the secretary of the National Security Council, but was also remembered for his regular and sharp speeches in the media.
According to the sources of the “Ukrainian Pravda” edition, it was one of Danilov’s public remarks on national television that became the “last straw” in Zelenskyi’s cup of patience and he got rid of his associate.
We are talking regarding the contemptuous words of the NSDC ex-secretary regarding the Chinese special representative on the Ukrainian issue, Li Hui, who allegedly suggested that Kyiv consider the possibility of peace talks with Moscow.
“I don’t understand who can take our territories, our lands like that and spread out. Because some Hui, I’m sorry, the last name is there, or someone else there thought that they should decide this,” Danilov said on March 20.
However, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the OP chairman, denies that this was the reason for the dismissal. “No, definitely not. It’s somehow very small. It’s impossible,” he said on Radio Svoboda.
Podolyak emphasized that Danilov “remains in the president’s team” and will work in a different direction.
As for the NSDC, according to the OP representative, it is necessary to strengthen the “analytical component” in the Security Council, which is why Lytvynenko was appointed there. Although observers have long said that Danilov was a “stranger” to the president’s team.
On the evening of March 29, Zelensky himself announced Danilov’s new place of work. He announced that he approved his appointment as ambassador to Moldova. The previous ambassador – Mark Shevchenko – was dismissed on the same day. He worked in Chisinau for a little over four years.
According to the president, Danilov himself expressed a desire to switch to a diplomatic career path.
“He told me exactly this vision of his future work for Ukraine. For us, Moldova is an extremely important state – both from the point of view of security challenges in the region, and from the point of view of our bilateral cooperation,” Zelenskyi said.
At the same time, Zelensky, as in the case of Zaluzhny, actually violated diplomatic protocol. After all, before the announcement regarding the ambassador, it is necessary to obtain an appointment agreement in the country where the ambassador is to go. This was not done. Almost two months have passed since the announcement of the intention to appoint Zaluzhnyi to Great Britain, and the appointment has not yet been made.
Even in his position as the secretary of the National Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov repeatedly mentioned Moldova as a possible next victim of Russian aggression.
“I am sure that this war will not stop in Ukraine. There will be many other things. Lavrov said the other day that Kazakhs and Moldovans are brothers. Get ready, brother Kazakhs and brother Moldovans,” the Secretary of the Security Council said in May 2022.
In February 2023, he announced that the Russian Federation was planning to carry out a coup d’état in Moldova and had prepared a group of Chechen fighters for this.
Changes in the office
Author of the photo, Andrii Smirnov’s Facebook page
Photo Caption,
Andriy Smirnov worked in OP since September 2019
On the evening of March 29, Volodymyr Zelenskyi also made changes in the leadership of the Office of the President. Andriy Smirnov and Oleksiy Dniprov, deputy heads of the OP, resigned from their posts.
Smirnov was responsible for judicial direction and preparation of international tribunals. He held his position since September 2019.
Before that, he was a well-known lawyer in Ukraine. Among his clients are a number of ex-officials from the Yanukovych era, in particular, the former head of the “Party of Regions” faction Oleksandr Yefremov. He was on trial for a long time on suspicion of treason, and with the beginning of a full-scale war, according to the media, he left for Russia.
Smirnov also cooperated for some time with Yanukovych’s former associate Andrii Portnov. But he insisted that he had not communicated with Portnov since 2019.
In his position in the OP, Andriy Smirnov has recently been dealing with the issue of creating a Special International Tribunal.
According to him, it should be formed exclusively through a voting procedure in the UN General Assembly or by signing an international agreement with the mandatory cancellation of the immunity of the trio of Russian leaders – the president, prime minister and foreign minister of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, the deputy chairman stressed that he was once morest the “hybrid tribunal” model and believed that it would make it impossible to bring Russian high-ranking officials to justice.
On his Facebook page following his dismissal, Smirnov wrote that it was an honor for him to work with Zelenskyi and thanked all colleagues, international partners and employees of the judicial system.
“The judicial reform action plan planned for the period 2020-2023 has been fully implemented, new challenges are ahead on a difficult path”, – noted he.
In an interview with the publication Liga in February 2023, Smirnov expressed doubt that he would ever return to law practice.
Rumors regarding his resignation have been circulating for several weeks, including those spread by Telegram channels linked to Bankova.
According to the Ukrainian BBC, in recent months Smirnov has been in conflict with the head of the OP Andriy Yermak and his deputy for law enforcement Oleg Tatarov.
Author photo, press office of the president’s office
Photo Caption,
Oleksiy Dniprov managed to work in power during the times of Yanukovych, Poroshenko and Zelensky
Oleksiy Dniprov is the only deputy chairman of the OP, who was left to Zelensky “as a legacy” from his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko. During the term of office of both presidents, Dniprov dealt exclusively with bureaucratic processes in OP and was chief of staff.
Before entering the presidential office, in 2013-2014 he was Deputy Minister of Education Dmytro Tabachnyk. Actually, because of his tenure in this position, Dniprov came under the influence of the law on lustration and did not have the right to hold public positions.
This was announced in 2016 by the Director of the Lustration Department of the Ministry of Justice, Tetyana Kozachenko.
However, he was never released from Poroshenko’s administration, and later Zelensky’s. Dniprov himself explained it as follows: in the Ministry of Education, he had the position of deputy minister-chief of staff, and not just deputy minister. Accordingly, it was not specified in the lustration law.
“These are completely different positions. And you can look at the law “On Purification of Power”. The position of deputy minister-head of the apparatus – there is no such category of positions in the law,” he said.
Iryna Mudra and Olena Kovalska will replace Smirnova and Dniprova in the Office of the President.
The first was from May 20, 2022 the deputy minister of justice, responsible for the direction of international courts and the confiscation of Russian assets.
Olena Kovalska worked for a long time in the banking sector, and from 2021 she headed the main department of strategic communications in the Office of the President, then she was the head of the office of the head of the OP Andrii Yermak and a member of the working group under the president on the creation of a tribunal that will judge the Russian government for the crime of aggression.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not comment on the reasons for the dismissal of the deputy head of the OP.
