Bohdan has to resign - Danylyuk

Bohdan has to resign - Danylyuk

Ukrinform
Former Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Oleksandr Danylyuk has said that the last straw that led to his resignation as NSDC secretary was the situation with PrivatBank and the influence of Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Bohdan, a former attorney for Ukrainian businessman Ihor Kolomoisky, on President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"There were several factors [that led to my resignation] but the last straw was the events surrounding PrivatBank. Events causing public outcry have occurred over the last few weeks. They concern searches at PrivatBank and an arson attack on a car and home of [former National Bank of Ukraine Governor] Valeriya Gontareva. There has also been some progress in the courts. There was such a concentration of events that sent a very negative signal. And I, as a person who put my reputation at stake during the election campaign when I stated that I would do all to limit Kolomoisky's influence in Ukraine, surely could not but react to it. It was not just a matter of reputation. It was also a matter of value. And that is why it became the last straw," Danylyuk said in an interview with BBC News Ukrainian.

When asked whether he had talked about it with Zelensky, Danylyuk noted that he had even talked to him during the election campaign.

"[We had conversations] when specific people, who represented the oligarch's interests during [PrivatBank's] nationalization, tried to form the position of the president (the then presidential candidate) in this process. And my position is simple. I even made it public. Because we were on different sides of the barricades. And we still have a conflict of interest. We cannot involve the president in this matter," he said.

In his opinion, since Bohdan, as a former lawyer for Kolomoisky, cannot avoid a conflict of interest, he has to resign.

"I think that if we talk about a conflict of interest, then Bohdan should write not a funny [resignation] statement, but a real one, as I did. And that's all. It would be a professional position," he said.

It emerged on September 27 that Danylyuk had tendered his resignation as NSDC secretary. He subsequently confirmed the report.

On September 30, Zelensky signed a decree dismissing Danylyuk from the post.

Danylyuk was appointed NSDC secretary on May 28, 2019. He was an adviser to Zelensky during the 2019 presidential election campaign.

Prior to that, Danylyuk served as Ukraine's finance minister in the government led by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman (between April 2016 and June 2018).

Ukraine's largest commercial bank, PrivatBank, was nationalized at the end of 2016. It earlier belonged to Kolomoisky.

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