Zelensky dismisses Demchenko from the position of First Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council. The President's Office states the reason

The relevant decree №528/2022 was published by the Office of the President of Ukraine.

"Release Ruslan Mykhailovych Demchenko from the post of First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine", it is stated in the decree. 

According to LIGA.net, Ruslan Demchenko no longer heads the Intelligence Committee under the President of Ukraine. The publication reports that Demchenko's close circle told about his serious illness and inability to continue working due to his health.

The publication also cites the comment of the adviser to the head of the Office of the President, Mykhailo Podolyak, who also explained Demchenko's dismissal due to health problems.

"Due to personal reasons related to a difficult state of health, Mr. Demchenko will not be able to continue working, as he needs serious treatment", Podolyak said. 

The publication notes that Demchenko's duties were redistributed among other team members.

Zelenskyy appointed Demchenko First Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council in June 2020. Before that - from July 2019 - Demchenko worked as an adviser to Zelenskyy.

During the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, Demchenko worked as the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and since September 2014 - an adviser to the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko.

Journalist Yuriy Butusov called Demchenko "the main connecting link between Zelenskyy, Yermak (head of the President's Office - Ed.) and Putin's administration".

On February 8, 2022, the former head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Vasyl Burba, in an interview with Dmytro Gordon, stated that the then head of the SBU, Ivan Bakanov, knew whether the head of the Presidential Intelligence Committee, Ruslan Demchenko, and the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, were Russian agents.

Investigators of the Schemes project and the head of the Voice parliamentary faction, Serhii Rakhmanin, called Demchenko a lobbyist for the Kharkiv Agreements regarding the presence of the military of the Russian fleet in Crimea, which became a prerequisite for the occupation of the peninsula.