Danylyuk submits resignation as security and defense secretary

Oleksandr Danylyuk, the secretary of the National
Security and Defense Council, confirmed in a Sept. 27 Facebook post that he
submitted his resignation ahead of Ukrainian President Zelensky’s visit to the
United Nations that began on Sept. 23. He said he will serve in his post “until
the president’s decision.” He cited no reasons, fueling much speculation in the
mass media.

Someone identified as a member of Danylyuk’s entourage
said he couldn’t reconcile with administrative methods “in the Bohdan style,”
referring to the President’s Office Head Andriy Bohdan, as reported by the
pravda.com.ua news site on Sept. 27. In response that day, anonymous sources in
the President’s Office alleged Danylyuk was sowing intrigues and failed to show
results. “We thought of appointing him U.S. ambassador, but even that’s risky,”
said a source cited by pravda.com.ua.

A common view in Kyiv is Danylyuk is preparing to be
appointed as the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations. Yet countering
that view is the Sept. 27 report on pravda.com.ua that alleged Zelensky
excluded Danylyuk from the official delegation traveling to the UN General
Assembly on Sept. 23. That became the last straw for Danylyuk, according to an
anonymous source in the President’s Office.

In another theory, Danylyuk is striving to avoid
reprisals from oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky since – having been finance minister at
the time – he was directly involved in deciding to nationalize Privatbank
alongside then-National Bank head Valeria Gontareva, according to Yuriy
Romanenko, a political expert with the Ukrainian Institute for the Future.