President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov. The decision was announced on the Presidential Office’s official website.

Danilov has served in the position since October 3, 2019, shortly after the beginning of Zelensky’s term in office.

“I am grateful to fate for giving me the opportunity to serve my country and my people in times of peace and war! I thank Ukraine’s president for his trust”, - Danilov wrote on Facebook, without revealing the reasons for his dismissal.

In the 1990s, Danilov was the mayor of now occupied Luhansk and later became the Luhansk Oblast governor. In 2006, he was elected to Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, as a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.

The National Security and Defense Council is a body that coordinates and controls the activities of executive authorities in the field of Ukraine’s national security and defense, and its decisions are enacted by presidential decrees.