no, in 15 minutes we will return to the studio, we will have people's deputies of ukraine in the studio, do not switch, stay with us, president zelenskyi has replaced the secretary of the national security and defense council and the head of foreign intelligence. we will tell what is known about personnel changes and who will now head the department in today's issue of bbc ukraine. i am olga polomaryuk. today's news was personnel changes in two departments of ukraine. president volodymyr zelenskyy by his decree dismissed the secretary of the national security and defense council oleksiy danilov and the head of the service of foreign intelligence oleksandr litvinenko. here are these decrees, they are published on the website of the president. let's start with danilov already.

the secretary of the nsdc has held his position since october 2019. before that, he was the mayor of luhansk, the head of the luhansk regional state administration and a member of the verkhovna rada for some time. danilov was one of the most loyal and public members of president zelenskyi's team. in numerous interviews with the media, he commented on a wide range of issues, from political disputes to possible developments at the front. and before full-scale invasion of russia in february 2022, oleksiy danilov... publicly reassured ukrainians, calling it unlikely, and later explained that the authorities were actually preparing for the invasion, but did not know the exact date. as oleksiy danilov commented on his dismissal on his facebook page, he thanked the president and the team with whom he worked as secretary of the national security council for almost 4.5 years. danilov did not report the reasons for his dismissal. and how did volodymyr zelenskyi explain these personnel changes? today i continued

to reboot the management system state, there are staff replacements, i am grateful to oleksiy danilov for his work as secretary of the national security and defense council of ukraine. he went in another direction. more on that later. i appointed oleksandr litvinenko as the new secretary of the national security council. he'. brings his experience of leading the foreign intelligence service of ukraine to the tasks facing the national security and defense council. well , danilov's dismissal from the post of secretary was already the second high-profile personnel change in recent months. in early february, volodymyr zelenskyi dismissed valery zaluzhny. then about the reasons for such a decision were also not reported. and it is interesting that before the resignation of the then head of the armed forces of ukraine, the publication was an economist. wrote

that the president of ukraine offered zuluzhny to take the post of secretary of the national security council, but he refused, and as it became known later, president zelenskyi said that he would send zuluzhny as ambassador to great britain. we talk mostly about the changes in the national security council with yevhen magda, director of the institute of world politics. good evening, thank you for joining the broadcast, why now president zelenskyy has changed the secretary of the national security council, what happened, how are you do you think good evening. it should be emphasized that changing the secretary of the national security council is the exclusive competence of the president, who is the head of the national security council compliance with ukrainian legislation, and i think that there may be several reasons, well, in my opinion, mr. lytvynenko is more professionally prepared, he also worked in the system of bodies of the state security before, and he is actually, i would say, an associate and a pet. volodymyr horbulin, an extremely

powerful specialist who stood at the origins of the formation of a system of strategic thinking in ukraine, already in modern ukraine, and therefore lytvynenko, well, he is not just fresh blood, fresh blood that can be more powerful. danilov, well, you know, statements like that he was walking around in a black jacket all the time, thereby ... signaling a possible invasion, well, that's a little bit, it's not the right year for me, it's interesting that now we don't have so many people left in to the military and political leadership of the country , who began a large-scale invasion on february 24, well, that's understandable, the president, the prime minister, by the way, the speaker of the parliament, the head of the main intelligence department, well, probably everything, and everything, but what about litvinenko? sir

yevgeny, we will also talk, but in general, the national defense security council, what kind of body is it, what is its responsibility now, and how can the change of the secretary affect it. in general, for the work of the national security council? in principle, the secretary rather performs, you know, organizational and directing functions. in the recent history of ukraine, the position of the secretary of the national security council was a place for political bargaining or for political exile. but it is clear that with the beginning of a large-scale invasion, this place became more important, well... it is absolutely clear, because it is also an opportunity to influence the work of the security forces structures and the ability to determine certain influences with the help of the national security council, so i think that the renewal of the post of the person who is the secretary of

the national security council was, in principle, logical. danilov was often, but in my opinion, unjustifiably called the only one. adults in zelenskyi's team, i simply mean that age in this case is not the main thing. yes, if i'm not mistaken, oleksiy danilov is 61, yes. evgeny magda is in touch with us, now we will continue the conversation, but who has become the new secretary of the national security council, oleksandr lytvynenko. unlike his predecessor, he has a less public biography. lytvynenko devoted his entire professional activity to analytical work in the special services of the nsdc. and at the specialized institute of strategic research, in 2021 he headed the foreign intelligence service, well, it is indicative that back in 2009 lytvynenko actually predicted russia's attack on ukraine, the position of head of the foreign intelligence service was taken by oleg ivashchenko,

who was previously the first deputy head of the main intelligence department of the ministry of defense. well, we return to the conversation with yevgeny magda, if danilov was clearly... the head of ukrainian politics, as he was called, then what will lytvynenko be like, what can we expect from him as secretary of the national security council, your predictions. i would like him to be the brain of the defense system, because we already understand that the wine will not last for two or three weeks, he, as a person, as you rightly pointed out, who worked in analytical structures, he will be able to set appropriate tasks to various analytical structures in the sbu, intelligence services, etc., actually the ministry of defense and the armed forces of ukraine. and these, i think, are changes in the military planning, changes in the defense order, more active foreign policy, all this

affects the competence of the nsdc. yes, but will there be further personnel changes, who may be next to be fired? this is the sphere of the exclusive powers of the president, here he does not need a decision of the parliament or anything else , so i think that these changes are possible, but what they will be, we will find out only after the fact, i note that in kyiv, well, i have not heard any rumors about the change of the secretary of the national security council during the last time, ugh, and president zelensky, commenting today's staff changes from... said , and i quote: he expects to strengthen the strategic capabilities of the state, to predict and influence the processes on which national security depends, that is, who expect, expectations from new leaders that they will be more effective than their predecessors , and they

're going to be able to do things that i think seem incredible at this point. mr. yevgeny, but in your opinion, should we talk about... any time frames, yes, should we expect these changes in the near future, or still, the new managers may need some time to, let's say, get used to a new place, given that we are in a state of war and given the hysteria that is currently observed in russia, we simply do not have time to relax, including people, who came to new positions, another question is that they have the necessary experience, and i simply think, i hope, that they will enter the structures that they headed and will work, as they say, from the first hours. yes, we will also monitor the situation, we will write about everything on our bbc.ua website, evgeny magda, director of the institute of world politics, was on our air. thank you for

the conversation. not about the changes in the national security council, read also on our website bbc.ua. president zelenskyi dismissed the secretary of the national security and defense council oleksiy. he appointed oleksandr litvinenko, the former head of the foreign intelligence service, in his place. reshuffles are taking place. during a difficult situation at the front, and in the border villages , life becomes unbearable for the locals. bbc correspondent sarah rainsforth went to sumy region, where she saw with her own eyes how people fleeing from shelling. nina had just lost everything she had, they had all lost everything. ukrainian pensioners are forced to flee from russian shelling and leave their homes.

through bridges already damaged by bombs. this is sumyshchyna, on the border with russia. a video of the national police shows entire streets completely destroyed by airstrikes. help, so the first thing we hear in this temporary shelter is a call to help the ukrainian military, then outrage at the one who started this war, and recently secured another year in the kremlin. putin is ours enemy, enemy, why did he crawl on our land, we did not touch him, he climbed on our land and killed everyone, how many people were beaten, how many were tortured, arms, legs were blown off, how many deaths have we had, and for what? most

of the evacuees believe that they will eventually return home, they are confused and scared, this is an evacuation from villages near the russian border that are under fire, they were brought here to a safer place, another ukrainians, whose lives were turned upside down by this war, the life of a small executioner has begun sub-item families flee not only from hostilities, they fleeing from the occupation by russia, from life under putin's rule. zoya and her husband took three days to get to sumy from the village. which is now full of russian soldiers. everyone who arrived from the occupied territories is

checked in their own country. and finally, zoya can tell her children that she is safe. and we are worried. she says she left because she was afraid to live under the control of the russians, and that it oppressed her morally. we go, and it goes in two directions, forest, trees, on one side, on the other side. i'm crying started, i say, i breathed in, that air is fresh, our ukrainian, yes, we are ukrainians, we want our ukraine to be ours, for it to prosper, for our children, for our grandchildren to live, i’m sorry, dear , it’s hard for her, zoya tells me, because even though she herself already safe, but ukraine is still very far from...

sumy and i remind you where we started the broadcast . president volodymyr zelensky fired the secretary of the national security and defense council oleksiy danilov and appointed the former head of the foreign intelligence service oleksandr litvinenko to this position. read about these changes on our website bbc.ua. the article is called what danilov did at the nsdc. and what his successor lytvynenko will do. well, that's all we have time to talk about today. subscribe to our pages in social networks so as not to miss the most important news. we are also on facebook, instagram and tiktok, on youtube, traditionally, you can watch our news release if you sometimes missed it on the air. comment, like, share. and we will be on the air again tomorrow, as always at 9 p.m., good luck and take care.

greetings, friends, on the air of the espresso tv channel, the second part of the verdict program, my name is serhiy rudenko, is on the air today. a request for terror. the kremlin is trying to drag ukraine into the terrorist attack in crocus by the ears, how to prevent putin from being transformed from a terrorist into a victim in the eyes of the world. unexpected personnel rotations. zelensky fired danilov and appointed a new secretary of the national security council. what are the changes in the power unit connected with? legislative provocations in

the european parliament are concerned about the discrediting of civil society in ukraine. is there a threat of collapse of democracy? friends, we we work live on the espresso tv channel, as well as on our youtube and facebook platforms. if you are now watching us on facebook and youtube, be sure to subscribe to our pages, like this video. and most importantly, vote in our poll. today we ask you about the following: do you see threats to democracy in ukraine today? yes, no, it's pretty easy on youtube if you have one. please leave your special opinion in the comments below this video. if you watch us on tv, take a road smartphone or phones and vote, if you see threats to democracy in ukraine today, call 0800-211381, not 0800 211 382. all calls to these numbers are free. at the end of the program, we will sum up the results of this

vote. i would like to introduce today's guests of our studio - they are people's deputies of ukraine. poturaev, people's deputy of ukraine from the servant of the people faction, chairman of the verkhovna rada committee on humanitarian and information policy, vice-president of the osce parliamentary assembly. mr. nikita, me i congratulate you, thank you for being with us today. rostyslav pavlenko, people's deputy of ukraine from the european solidarity faction, member of the verkhovna rada committee on education, science and innovation. mr. rostislav, i congratulate you and thank you for joining our broadcast. good evening, greetings to all! yaroslav zheliznyak, people's deputy of ukraine from the holos faction, first deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy. mr. yaroslav, i congratulate you and i am glad to see you on the air. good evening. well, since, gentlemen, we are asking our tv viewers and viewers whether they see threats to democracy in

ukraine today, i will also ask you in the blitz poll format what you think about it. let's start with... yaroslav zheleznyak, mr. yaroslav, do you see threats to democracy in ukraine today? well, to answer very briefly, yes, thank god that these threats are not such that they are critical yet, but many of the processes that, unfortunately, are taking place are definitely not in accordance with the best democratic practices, which we are told very often, and the last time and publicly already... our foreign colleagues are speaking. thank you, mr. mykyta, do you see problems with democracy in ukraine? there is no connection, something, we have some problems with the connection, now we will redial nikita paturaev, i apologize, mr. nikita, mr. rostislav, do you see threats to democracy in ukraine today? unfortunately, yes, there are

specific manifestations, indeed, we are already open about this. and the partners speak clearly, and i hope that in the course of our european euro-atlantic integration , common sense will still prevail, and we will stop all these attempts to create a dictatorship here. i hope that nikita poturaev will now join our poll blitz and we will hear what nikita poturaev thinks about democracy and the threats that exist. mr. nikita, once again good evening, please forgive us some problems with z'. com: do you see any problems or threats to democracy in ukraine? well, of course, i see threats to democracy in ukraine, only they are not, well, internal, but they are external, because an absolutely totalitarian state is trying to take us over, so all threats to democracy in ukraine, they come from russian

muscovy, that's all, our internal problems, they are absolutely... in my opinion, within the framework of the democratic process? let's talk about the internal problems that occur within the framework of the democratic process. yesterday , two deputies from the servant of the people, galina tretyakova and maryana bezugla, introduced a bill on life imprisonment for misappropriation of state functions, in particular, representing ukraine at international events without the granting of authorizations and approvals, while bezugla herself named her bill a provocation and a political test. the discussion written by mariana: the draft law will not be put to the vote, it is really nice to see how colleagues woke up, who are often not distracted by urgent things, who are happy for the cheap. a chance to show their commitment to the ideals of democracy. at the same time, the member of the european parliament from germany, viola von kramon, was outraged by the provocative bill of people's deputy bezugliy on the prohibition of appropriation

of state functions. she is serious, writes ms. von craman. legislator in the verkhovna rada introduces draft laws to do what, to provoke? i hoped that here in kyiv we would deal with more mature colleagues. it's so amazing to read these stories from someone. from the ruling party when we are actually trying to start negotiations on joining the european union. these initiatives, of course, will not help much if they start to openly discredit and limit the work of civil society organizations in the country by law. well, this is the kind of provocation made by bezula and tretyakov, and this is the reaction of the member of the european parliament from germany. well, mr. nikita, since these are your fellow party members. and members of the servants of the people faction, why are they doing such provocations, or are they just testing what will be the reaction of civil society, what will be the reaction of your

political opponents, what will be the reaction of the members of the european parliament? look, uh , there's different people in any parliament, we don't make conclusions about the republican party based on... what a famous so-called, well, so-called, sorry, that's her name, says or does, marjorie taylor green, we don't, that's right, and ms. violi, whom i respect very much, it would be worthwhile to look around the european parliament and see how many different devils there are, including absolutely pro-russian ones, or how many of them there are in germany, including in the german parliament. or to pay attention to how the parties of prussian devils are growing, i will not name them specifically, although everyone knows, in different countries, both in the old europe and in

the new. this means absolutely nothing, because different people get into parliaments, and before drawing any conclusions, you should ask yourself whether the servant of the people faction submitted these bills for consideration? no. has the general council submitted it to the verkhovna rada for consideration? obviously not. are there votes in the parliament for such initiatives. also obvious. therefore, yes, of course we can discuss the proposals of individual people's deputies of ukraine. but let me remind you that such proposals are not only from our faction. there were many different ones. and not at all with everyone, not that the parliament agreed. but i would say that the committees, even, well, i would say, none of these proposals, controversial ones, passed, even before

consideration in the hall, but there was no discussion of the consideration in the hall at all, that's all, that's why i wouldn't draw conclusions about any serious challenges for democracy from individual initiatives that... are not supported by anyone, you know, i would agree with your answer completely, on one condition, if mariana bezugla did not play an important role in the removal of a deserving person from the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces of ukraine, this is the first, and secondly, mariana bezugla is the deputy of the parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence , that is, it is not simple some ordinary people's deputy of ukraine or something. a person who can simply write a bill and say: well, i trolled you a little during the war, yes, i am the deputy head of the parliamentary committee on national security and defense, but i decided

to have fun with galina tretyakova and decided to write such a bill. well, it looks absolutely irresponsible from the point of view of a politician, people's deputy of ukraine and one of the heads of the parliamentary committee on national security and defense. mr. yaroslagia and see mr. sergey, one a short remark: i don't think that this is the right behavior, i don't think that these are the right initiatives, but we have all deputies, members of some committees, if we say that the committee on development and defense is now the highest priority, i agree with you absolutely , but that does not mean that, for example, the committee on which i have the honor to serve is worse or lower in status and importance than the committee you mentioned. now all the initiatives of the development and defense committee, they are priorities, it is true, but all the committees are important, because in fact all the committees now

working on it, working. to ensure our victory, without any doubt, mr. rostislav, how do you feel about such a provocation, as marijana bezugla says, and i think it is worth taking into account, you quoted willetta von kramer, she said one very important thing, she says about mature politics, says about a serious attitude, and i absolutely agree with the fact that such behavior definitely does not suit a person who holds the position of deputy head... and the committee is really one of the leaders, i will even say that her colleagues, members committee were almost unanimous in the draft decision to eliminate this position, as far as i know, and the representatives of the regulatory committee would also support this position, but for unknown reasons, we can only guess at the possible influence of

the president's office. the chairman of the verkhovna rada does not put this issue to a vote in the hall and thus does not allow the verkhovna rada to express its own attitude to the behavior of this person and give him an assessment, including such things, and feeling his impunity, here she continues to do such things, i think that these are far from the last things, what mr. serhii mentioned about her role in the resignation of zaluzhny, it really reminds me of that. the use of ms. bezuglai as such, well, i don’t want to use slang expressions here, but there is a certain attacking element, let’s call it that, and this is definitely not what the parliament should be doing now, i think my colleagues support me in that the best way to conduct work in the parliament would be the way we all worked in february march 22, then i just think that the ukrainian parliament really demonstrated the peaks, just... well

, mr. nikita in the committee, as far as i know, just such an atmosphere prevails, but unfortunately, this is far from a rule for this parliament, but it should have been a rule, not that ms. bezul demonstrates. thank you, mr. yaroslav, how do you perceive this as something that a political battering ram, i will call it, mariana bezugla is trying to bring something, some topic into society and the information space and protest, whether it can be or not maybe, or... it's just an individual's artistic self-activity of a people's deputy, well actually, but in this artistic amateur performance, if it is an artistic amateur performance, there is a very negative reaction to it in the european parliament, in particular, good day from several points: first, thank god, the draft law has been withdrawn, well, i understand that the damage has already been done , but at least we do not continue to run on the rake that has been laid out, secondly, well, look, we can

criticize some deputies and houses of representatives of the united states, the european parliament and the bundestag, but there is one big and very powerful difference: we do not have them they are asking for money, but we are from them, they are not asking us for weapons, but we are from them, they should not join the european union and nato, we should. therefore, the fact that they, or some, unfortunately, representatives. as the aforementioned medjarie taylor green can afford, we cannot afford and especially cannot afford from the ruling coalition. our european colleagues are not very well versed in ukrainian politics. they don't know that there are people's deputies who, i don't know, whether it's some miraculous mushrooms or something else affects them, but it inspires

such legislation. but they really open the title, and unfortunately, the title is written there, the chairman of the committee, the deputy chairman of the committee, it is probably not very fair to mr. poturaev, what about maryana, because as far as i remember, maryana first left the party, for the second time publicly wrote a statement of withdrawal from the faction, and the only thing that is now stopping this process of leaving the coalition is that for some reason her statement is not read at the parliament session, and for a long enough time, the same for some reason is not passed a resolution on dismissal of her deputy, but this is a separate topic, i probably wouldn't really want to focus on it, i would like a little bit for us to rise higher, look, it's no secret that, especially in terms of european integration, besides a huge number of friends, we have opponents, and the brightest...