Ukraine’s security chief Parubiy resigns

Ukraine’s security chief submitted his resignation on Thursday. President Petro Poroshenko accepted Andrey Parabiy’s resignation as Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, the same day.

“I have submitted my resignation from the post of the National Security and Defense Council Secretary (NSDC),” Parubiy wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.

However, he did not explain his reasons. “I consider it unacceptable to comment on the resignation during the war,” he wrote citing the crisis in southeastern Ukraine.

Regarding his future plans, he wrote that he will “continue dealing with the issues of providing assistance to the front, primarily to volunteer battalions.”

Poroshenko’s spokesman said on his Twitter account that Parubiy will “stay on the presidential team.”

The president accepted Parubiy’s resignation, speaking of it at a meeting with the heads of the NSDC departments on Thursday.

Poroshenko thanked the former security chief for his work “in the darkest days of the existence of our country,” and for taking decisions that helped the country “survive,” said the president’s statement on his website.

On Monday, reports appeared in Ukrainian media about Parubiy’s resignation. The Local Zn.ua website, citing its source, said that the security chief is due to resign due to diverging opinions with the country’s president. The media stated that Parubiy decided to resign after he was ordered to declare another ceasefire in Kiev’s military operation in the southeast of the country, but he refused to do so.

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Parubiy was appointed secretary of the NSDC on February 27 by then acting President Aleksandr Turchinov, following the government coup in the country. The former security chief gained a reputation during the Maidan protests in Kiev – he was the commandant of Euromaidan self-defense from November last year.

Parubiy was also one of the initiators of the creation of the country’s National Guard forces, which are currently involved in Kiev’s punitive operation in the southeast. As Secretary of the NSDC, Parubiy oversaw this military operation.

He has been a political activist since 1991, when he founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine together with Oleg Tyagnybok. The party promoted radical nationalism with neo-Nazi features, such as a "Wolfsangel” on its first logo. In 2004, the party changed its name to Svoboda (Freedom) and since then has been headed by Tyagnybok. It has been often characterized as far right. Parubiy co-led the Orange Revolution in 2004 and was rewarded for his contribution.

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