Zelenskyy proposes candidate for security council secretary, decree being drafted

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he has offered Ihor Klymenko, who has served as Minister of Internal Affairs for several years, the post of secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council (NSDC). Klymenko had earlier been considered for the post of defence minister.

Source: Zelenskyy on X (Twitter)

Quote: "Ihor Klymenko will continue working for Ukraine in the field of protecting our state and people. I offered him the position of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. The relevant appointment decree is already in preparation."

Details: Zelenskyy also thanked Klymenko for his work within the Ministry of Internal Affairs system, saying that "there have been many difficult challenges, and the response has always been effective."

He also said that the main priority now is achieving the most effective coordination possible between all components of the security and defence sector, and daily oversight of the implementation of decisions.

Quote: "Every decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief must be implemented in full and within the established timeframe."

More details: A separate priority is coordinating defence production.

The current secretary of the National Security and Defence Council is Rustem Umierov, a former defence minister.

Background:

• On 16 July,Zelenskyy said he has not yet submitted the nomination of former interior minister Ihor Klymenko as defence minister to parliament, but he believes Klymenko is capable of dealing with the problem of "shameful busification practices" during mobilisation. [Busification is the controversial practice of forced mobilisation in which recruitment officers detain men in public, often bundling them onto minibuses to transport them to enlistment offices – ed.]
• However, late in the evening, Zelenskyy announced that he will propose that Parliament appoint Yevhen Khmara as defence minister. Khmara, the acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), has been tasked by the president with acting as Ukraine's defence minister in the interim.
• Ivan Vyhivskyi became Minister of Internal Affairs.
• A protest in support of acting Defence Minister Minister Mykhailo Fedorov is taking place near the President's Office in Kyiv and a number of Ukrainian cities. Participants are asking the authorities to reinstate Fedorov in the new government.

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