“Patriot.” Zelensky’s new key adviser was gaining experience in Russia’s FSB

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This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued the exchanges in the highest security levels, or – as he says – in the “reset of the state administration system” (we wrote here).

Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the current head of the SZR intelligence, is thus newly at the head of the National Security and Defense Council (RNBO). He replaced Oleksiy Danilov, whose name also appeared in the Western media because he often openly commented on the development of the Russian war in Ukraine.

The council brings together ministers and leading representatives of the Ukrainian state, who are in charge of security, the police and the army. Its official head is the president, but the secretary is in charge of day-to-day running.

Apparently, Lytvynenko’s name came as a surprise even to the Ukrainian media, which did not provide much detail about him in the first moments after the news of the exchange was published. Only later did the Kyiv Post server, for example, publish a more detailed profile of Lytvynenko with details about his career and quotes from his former colleagues.

The newspaper’s sources are convinced that the fifty-two-year-old Lytvynenko is well prepared for the position. He received his education at Kyiv National University, as well as in Canada, Germany and Great Britain.

News from the battlefield

The fact that between 1989 and 1994 he studied at the academy of the Russian FSB, the successor organization of the Soviet KGB, drew attention. As the Kyiv Post writes, it was discussed mainly on social networks, not among Ukrainian opposition politicians.

“When he was working as the Deputy Secretary of the Council in the times (former Ukrainian President Peter) Poroshenko, we thought it was the highest position he could reach, nothing more, because he studied at the FSB academy,” one of his sources told the server.

But all those interviewed agree that Lytvynenko has demonstrated professionalism, experience and patriotism in various leadership positions over the course of 10 to 15 years. All the time, however, he rather avoided public appearances.

“Criticism of his experience with the FSB looks so funny and stupid,” noted Dmytro Jarovyj, a professor at the Kyiv University of Economics, to the Kyiv Post. “He’s worked for four presidents and he’s been through so many different intelligence agencies it’s ridiculous (questioning his patriotism). I have never heard anything but respect for his professionalism from anyone who has worked with him.”

At the beginning of the millennium, in addition to the RNBO, Lytvynenko also worked in the SBU secret service and lectured on international relations at the Kyiv National University. Later, he was an adviser to the presidential office during the reign of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was then overthrown by the Maidan revolution.

Transformation of Zelensky

After Yanukovych’s fall, he became vice-chairman of the RNBO. When Zelenskyy took office in 2019, Lytvynenko headed the National Institute for Strategic Studies, a research institute subordinate to the Ukrainian head of state. Two years later, he became the head of intelligence.

“He is a brilliant analyst. He goes into every problem as deeply as possible,” pointed out the former secretary of the Ukrainian Ministry of Information, Artem Bidenko. The former deputy of the same department, Dmytro Zolotuchin, also highlighted his analytical and decision-making abilities for the Kyiv Post.

“All high-ranking officials from various offices and ministries respect him as a broad-minded person,” he said. According to him, Lytvynenko is currently the most suitable person for the post of Secretary of the Council, which prepares drafts of important security decisions.

Sources of the server admit that Lytvynenko’s appointment was a surprise even for people in the state leadership. According to them, however, the president was probably annoyed that Danilov spoke too often in public. “Lytvynenko will have to work harder (in office),” one source told the Kyiv Post.