Verkhovna Rada wants to determine who performs powers of NSDC Secretary in their absence or impossibility to perform duties

The Verkhovna Rada wants to determine who performs the powers of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) in case of their absence or inability to exercise their powers. This is stated in Draft Law No. 14298 of December 12, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

The bill is authored by MPs from the Servant of the People faction, members of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Fedir Venislavskyi, Maksym Berezin, Oleksandr Fedienko, Oleksandr Zavitnevych (chairman of the committee).

Deputies propose to determine that in the event of the temporary absence of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine or the inability to exercise his powers for other reasons, his powers are temporarily exercised by one of the Deputy Secretaries of the NSDC, who is temporarily entrusted with the powers by the relevant decision of the Secretary of the NSDC.

In the explanatory note to the draft law, the MPs note that the legislation does not currently regulate the issue of exercising the powers of the NSDC Secretary in case of his temporary absence, and their draft law aims to ensure the smooth functioning of work processes related to the organization of the NSDC activities.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on July 18, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov as the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to replace Oleksandr Lytvynenko.

Umerov is involved in negotiations with partners, including the United States, on a plan to resolve the russian-Ukrainian war and has been abroad for a long time.

On November 20, the National Security and Defense Council reported that Umerov had returned to Ukraine from a business trip, noting that travel is a normal part of his official activities. This announcement was made by the National Security and Defense Council after information circulated online that Umerov had allegedly traveled abroad amid a corruption scandal in the energy sector and refused to return to Ukraine.