Zelensky dismisses head of Ukraine security council

Oleksiy Danilov has been replaced by Oleksandr Lytvynenko from Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service.

Oleksandr Lytvynenko is reported to be close to Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff. Picture: AFP

President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the head of the Ukrainian national security council and replaced him with a foreign intelligence chief in Kyiv’s latest shake-up of senior officials.

Oleksiy Danilov was appointed in 2019, shortly after Mr Zelensky came to power. He is known for being outspoken, including on Western failures to provide Ukraine the weaponry it says it needs to drive out the Russian army.

Mr Danilov will become Ukraine’s ambassador to Norway, reports in Kyiv said. He has been replaced by Oleksandr Lytvynenko, head of the Ukrainian foreign intelligence service.

Mr Zelensky has replaced several high-ranking security and defence officials since last year. Some reports said General Valery Zaluzhny, the former ­commander-in-chief, was offered Mr Danilov’s job when he was dismissed by Mr Zelensky last month. General Zaluzhny was instead named ambassador to Britain and is awaiting diplomatic accreditation.

Mr Danilov has clashed publicly with Mykhailo Podolyak, one of Mr Zelensky’s top advisers, and David Arakhamia, a senior MP in the president’s ruling party. He is also said to have been in conflict with Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, since the first year of the Russian invasion.

Mr Lytvynenko, his replacement as national security chief, is believed to be close to Mr Yermak.

Mr Danilov said in an interview with The Times last month that “not all” Western countries wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia and that many were indifferent to the suffering of its people. “The West closes its eyes to this; it does not want to respond adequately to this. They are not killing you, after all,” he said.

In November, he had alleged to The Times that Russian agents were operating within the Ukrainian SBU security service to destabilise the country and undermine national unity.

A source within Mr Zelensky’s administration told Ukrainian media in 2022 that Mr Danilov “saw spies everywhere” and his influence had declined as a result of his conflict with Mr Yermak and other officials.

Meanwhile, SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk has in a television interview detailed extra-judicial killings of Kyiv’s opponents in Russia. The interview came out as Russia accused Ukraine of masterminding Friday’s attack on a Moscow concert hall, which killed at least 139.

The Times