The commotion continues in the highest echelons of Ukrainian power. After the controversial reshuffle at the head of the general staff, with the replacement of the popular Valeri Zaluzhny by Oleksandr Syrsky, Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed this Tuesday, March 26, the head of his National Defense and Security Council (RNBO), Oleksiy Danilov. A laconic announcement, without official explanation, and which was not really expected. Oleksandr Lytvynenko, former director of foreign intelligence, will be his successor, the Ukrainian president announced immediately.
“I am grateful to Oleksiy Danilov for his work as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. He was transferred to another direction. I will return to that later,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video published on Facebook, while rumors are already promising Danilov the post of ambassador to Norway. For his part, the latter thanked on his social networks the Ukrainian president for his “confidence”, assuring that “the Russian monster will be annihilated” and calling on the Ukrainian people to “never be afraid of anyone, to move forward and believe in Ukraine”, without giving no more on his side of reasons for his ouster.
A central organization
The National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine is an administrative organization directly reporting to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Made up of the latter but also some of the most important Ukrainian representatives, whether the Prime Minister, the Ministers of Defense, Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs, or even the head of intelligence, among others. Its role, as its name suggests, is to coordinate the country’s national security and foreign policy.
But since the start of the Russian invasion, this body has gained colossal influence, having the power to impose sanctions against personalities or entities qualified as pro-Russian, to deprive individuals of Ukrainian citizenship or even to carry out nationalizations. A role considered omnipotent, in the eyes of some. “The Council replaces the courts since it has the power to destroy a company, a media or a political party without legal proceedings and without authorizing a defense,” judged the newspaper Kyiv Independent in February 2023, on condition of anonymity, a researcher from Center for Economic Strategy, an independent Ukrainian NGO.
An accusation that Danilov defended against the same Kyiv Independent. “We are not abusing our power. Our job is to ensure that the Russians do not have spies here and do not carry out harmful operations aimed at destroying our country,” he said, adding that ” we can only restrict things; we don’t give orders to shoot people.”
Free speech
Mayor of Luhansk from 1994 to 1997 – a city in eastern Ukraine annexed by Russia since 2022 – Oleksiy Danilov was at the head of the RNBO since October 2019, only a few months after Zelensky’s election. Enough to make him one of the Ukrainian president’s first traveling companions in power. Aged 61, he had become accustomed to occupying an important place in the public space, with a firm tone towards Russia, and a sometimes very free form. In April 2023, he notably accused Vladimir Putin of using… lookalikes for his travels in Russia and occupied Ukraine.
Maybe even a little too free, especially in recent weeks. On March 19, Danilov strongly criticized the official Chinese representative for Eurasia, Li Hui, who had positioned himself for negotiations between Moscow and kyiv. “I want to remind everyone that no one will decide our fate, except us. I don’t understand who can exchange our territories, our lands in this way. It’s not because a certain Hui, whoever “either his last name, or someone else thinks so, it’s up to him to decide,” he said.
As recalled The world, Danilov also attacked the United States a few days later, reacting virulently to an article in the American press explaining that Washington was trying to convince Kiev to stop its strikes against Russian oil refineries, under penalty of ‘soar world prices. However, this “fuel war” is at the heart of the new Ukrainian military strategy, as Oleksiy Danilov quite virulently underlined during a security forum in kyiv: “Ukraine will continue to destroy Russian targets wherever it deems appropriate, and without asking anyone’s permission.”
A more conciliatory successor
A double diplomatic quarrel that Volodymyr Zelensky could do without, while the Ukrainian president is trying hard to convince his Western partners not to relax their military aid, and cannot really afford to argue with the two world powers could have a major influence on the destiny of Ukraine.
Danilov’s successor at the head of this Defense and Security Council also seems to be moving in this direction. Aged 51, head of Ukrainian foreign intelligence since 2021 but also former deputy secretary of the RNBO, whose workings he therefore knows, Oleksandr Lytvynenko is a discreet but influential figure who should master the art of diplomatic negotiations. Volodymyr Zelensky also added that this choice was part of a desire to “strengthen the strategic capabilities of our State to predict and influence the processes on which our national security depends”.