Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on March 26 dismissed Oleksiy Danilov from the post of secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, replacing him with Oleksandr Lytvynenko, who has served as Ukraine's foreign intelligence chief.
The personnel change was announced in two decrees posted on the Ukrainian president’s website. Zelenskiy had not indicated he was planning any changes, and no reason was given for Danilov's dismissal. Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council since October 2019, did not publicly comment.
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The country's top political, security, and defense chiefs comprise the council, which has a coordinating role on issues of national security and defense under the president.
Zelenskiy's decrees named Oleh Ivashchenko, a deputy chief of the Ukrainian military spy agency, as the new foreign intelligence chief.
The personnel change comes as Ukraine is trying to build defensive fortifications in the eastern part of the country where Russian forces have been advancing and as Ukraine becomes more and more frustrated over the inability of the U.S. Congress to pass a massive military aid package for Ukraine because of partisan disagreements.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Politico in an article published on March 25 that his country desperately needs U.S.-made surface-to-air missiles to fend off Russia’s relentless attacks.
“Give us the damn Patriots,” he said, referring to the air-defense weapons that are the best defense system against the ballistic missiles that Russia has been using.
“If we had enough air-defense systems, namely Patriots, we would be able to protect not only the lives of our people, but also our economy from destruction,” he added.
The personnel change comes as Ukraine is trying to build defensive fortifications in the eastern part of the country where Russian forces have been advancing.
Lytvynenko will take up his new duties amid regular barrages by Russian forces, including fresh drone and missile attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv on March 26.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces carried out strikes "on decision-making centers and facilities of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)." The ministry said "high-precision long-range naval and land-based weapons and UAVs" were used in a group strike and claimed that the "goal of the strike was achieved."
Ukraine’s military said it had shot down 12 Russian drones that were aimed Kyiv. No casualties were reported, but it was unclear if there was damage on the ground, the military said. In Kharkiv, regional authorities said at least eight Iranian-made drones targeted Ukraine’s second-largest city but were shot down by air defenses.
The drone attacks occurred as engineers struggled to restore electricity to thousands of people from earlier attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid.
Russian attacks a day earlier battered some of Kharkiv’s electric grid, as well as facilities in the Black Sea port of Odesa and the river port of Mykolayiv. Odesa regional Governor Oleh Kiper said more than 300,000 residents were without power late March 25.
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In addition, on the night of March 25, the Ukrainian military shot down eight of nine Shahed drones in the Mykolayiv and Odesa regions. In Mykolayiv, falling debris struck houses and injured 11 people.
Meanwhile, A Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant for the chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk, on charge of public calls for terrorism. Malyuk was also added to Russia's wanted list.
Kommersant newspaper said the charge might have stemmed from Malyuk's statement last year about SBU's involvement into an October 2022 attack on the key bridge in Ukraine's Moscow-occupied Crimea.
On March 25, in a televised interview, Malyuk revealed some details of deadly attacks against Russia's pro-Kremlin public figures since 2022. Malyuk did not say whether the SBU was involved in those attacks.