President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appointed former Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. The decree was published on the president’s official website on May 28.
Danylyuk is replacing Oleksandr Turchynov, who headed the NSDC since 2014 and resigned right before Zelenskiy was sworn in as president on May 21.
Danylyuk has been one of top advisors in Zelenskiy’s presidential campaign. Many were expecting Danylyuk to occupy a top government position.
He previously served as Ukraine’s finance minister in 2016-2018, replacing Natalie Jaresko and being appointed by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. However, two years later Groysman fired Danylyuk amid a conflict over reforming the state fiscal service, one of Ukraine’s most controversial government bodies. Danylyuk accused Groysman of sabotaging the reform and covering up corruption.
Danylyuk and former National Bank of Ukraine Governor Valeria Gontareva guided the nationalization of PrivatBank from its previous owners, oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholyubov, in 2016.
Zelenskiy made two more appointments on May 28.
Oleksiy Honcharuk, a lawyer by profession, was appointed deputy chief of staff. Honcharuk is the head of Better Regulation Delivery Office, an expert-analytical center financed by the European Union.
Oleg Ustenko, executive director at the Bleyzer Foundation, a Kyiv-based organization, was appointed as the president’s advisor.
Earlier Zelenskiy appointed controversial lawyer Andriy Bohdan as his chief of staff. Until recently, Bohdan served as Kolomoisky’s lawyer in matters including PrivatBank. Read more about the president’s first appointments here.
