Danilov’s ouster was followed by a minor reshuffling of the Ukrainian brass, with the now-former head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service Oleksandr Litvinenko taking his place, while Oleh Ivashchenko was appointed as Litvinenko’s replacement.
Assigning Danilov to a diplomatic role seems like a rather interesting move by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, given the former’s penchant for chauvinistic remarks and overall crassness.
While Danilov’s new posting may suggest that Kiev lacks more competent people for that mission, it may also highlight the fact that Ukrainian officials have no real clout in Moldova. As such, it doesn’t matter who is sent there as Kiev’s envoy, said Alexander Dudchak, a researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries.
“The French have considerable influence there, including the influence in Romania,” Dudchak told Sputnik.
He also suggested that France’s President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks about a possible deployment of French troops to the Ukrainian conflict zone could have hinted at the prospects of these troops being sent to Moldova to deal with Transnistria – a region that declared its independence from Moldova during the collapse of the Soviet Union and that sits next to the Ukrainian border.
“Transnistria is being held hostage, there’s over 200,000 Russian citizens over there,” Dudchak remarked, suggesting that the relatively small region could be quickly overrun by “foreign” i.e. NATO troops.
He added that Romania has recently adopted a new law that effectively allows it to launch a military intervention in Moldova, and that Romanian military personnel “dressed in Moldovan uniforms” has been present in Moldova for quite some time.
“A former national security council head appointed by Ukraine will portray his presence while the Americans, the British and the French will be calling the shots,” Dudchak speculated.