Zelenskyi appoints a new Head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has replaced the head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service.

By one of the decrees published on the President's website on July 23, Zelenskyi fired Valerii Kondratyuk.

By another decree, the president appointed Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Head of the FIS of Ukraine, and dismissed him from the post of director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies.

They don't name the reasons for personnel change in the decrees.

Note

Zelenskyi appointed Kondratiuk head of the Foreign Intelligence Service in June 2020.

In 2015, Valerii Kondratiuk headed the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.

From 2016 to 2019, he was Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Petro Poroshenko.

Who is Oleksandr Lytvynenko?

A 49- years old Kyiv-native  is a PhD in Political Sciences and a major general of the reserve.

Education

According to the website of the National Institute for Strategic Studies (where information about Litvinenko's professional path is still available), in 1994, he graduated from the Institute of Cryptography, Communications and Informatics of the Academy of Federal Counterintelligence Service of the Russian Federation with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In 2015, he was 'vetted' by lustration inspection.

Lytvynenko is a graduate of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (2009), and UK Royal College of Defense Studies (2013).

Сareer

In 1994-1998, Lytvynenko was a senior officer of the SBU's Department of Government Communications.

In 1998-2005, he worked at the National Institute for Strategic Studies. Later, until 2007, Lytvynenko worked for the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

In 2007-2009, he was Deputy Head of the Information and Analytical Department of the Security Service of Ukraine. In 2010-2014 Lytvynenko was Deputy Director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies.

In 2014-2019, he held the position of Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.

In August 2019, Lytvynenko became the director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies.

Lytvynenko also worked part-time as a lecturer at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.