Havrysh said that the NSDC lost its independence after the war began, and power was concentrated in the hands of the President
1 December 2025 19:47
Former First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Stepan Havrysh said in an interview with the YouTube channel "Komersant Ukrainian" that during the full-scale war, real power was completely transferred to the president, and that the then NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Lytvynenko allegedly performed only formal functions.
“The former head of the National Security and Defense Council , Oleksandr Lytvynenko, was only a formal executive under the president, because since the beginning of the war, the president has become the center of state governance, an authoritarian leader who has concentrated all power in his hands,” Havrysh said.
According to him, with the beginning of the invasion, all checks and balances were instantly eliminated.
The former official emphasized that a democratic system requires collegiality and periodic change of power:
“We live in a democracy. Democracy is a complex system of governance. Churchill said that this is the worst form of government, but no one has come up with a better one. It is a collective form of governance. It has its own cycles when the government has to change if it does not fulfill its obligations. And we see how it works in the West,” he added.
Gavrysh also compared political processes in Ukraine to those in Europe, pointing to the growing tension between different political forces:
“It is no coincidence that this conflict between populists, left-wing radicals, right-wing radicals and centrists, liberals has become acute. The liberals are not fulfilling their obligations… In Ukraine, the story is the same,” he said.
The former NSDC Deputy Secretary reminded that there were fears in Ukrainian society about the concentration of economic resources in the hands of the authorities, but this is what happened.
